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Microsoft Edge Accused of Stealing Data From Chrome (zdnet.com) 90

Posted by EditorDavid from the browsers-that-borrow dept.
Some Windows 10 users have complained that when Microsoft sets up its Edge browser, it steals data from Chrome and Firefox without asking first, writes ZDNet columnist Chris Matyszczyk.

But today a reader sent him a new complaint involving Windows 7: "My wife's computer, which is running Windows 7, got a Windows update this morning, which then gave the full-screen welcome page for Edge Chromium. She was terrified as this looked exactly as if malware had taken over the machine... How could any application be running that she hadn't started? How is it that Microsoft can't manage to provide security updates for Windows 7, as it is end of life, but still manage to force a new web browser that isn't wanted on Windows 7 users...?"

"The full-screen welcome page for Chomium Edge did have a faint 'close' gadget in the top right, which was the very first thing we clicked... This still left Edge pinned on the taskbar and when I hovered over it, it showed all the recent sites she had visited on Chrome. So it must have stolen that data from Chrome which is the only browser she ever uses."
The ZDNet columnist shared his own reaction to the story. "Edge is a fine browser. It's quick, effective, and has superior privacy instincts than does Chrome. I have begun to use it and I like it. When you launch a new product, however, you have two choices: You can announce it, make people feel good about it, and then rely on word of mouth. Or you can try ramming it down people's throats.

"The former is often more effective. Microsoft has chosen the latter."
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Microsoft Edge Accused of Stealing Data From Chrome More

Microsoft Edge Accused of Stealing Data From Chrome

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  • Updates (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So you have automatic updates enabled and are surprised it updated something?

    • Re:Updates (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Sunday August 02, 2020 @12:42PM (#60357835)

      So you have automatic updates enabled and are surprised it updated something?

      Perhaps they're just amazed they didn't lose all their data and were still able to boot after an update?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Khyber ( 864651 )

      I had updates explicitly disabled on all of my Win7 machines and yet they somehow still got forced to Win10.

      • I call bullshit on that, as it has never automaticcaly updated windows 7 to windows 10, NEVER. The only way to update to windows 10 is manually, and you even had to go to a special website for that and install a seperate installer.

        • The only way to update to windows 10 is manually, and you even had to go to a special website for that and install a seperate installer.

          That was a couple weeks of MS PR before they walked it back, you're a bit behind.

          • No I'm not. I just recently upgraded to a new PC at work (which hasn't got any systemadminstrators controlling it) which had Windows 10. Before that I have been using Windows 7 for a long LONG time, and the only way if I wanted to upgrade that one to Windows 10 was through a special website, EVEN in the time MS promoted and freely let you upgrade to Windows 10.. Never has it been as an option through Windows Update on Windows 7.

            • OK, you're right, you're not behind, you're just an ignorant moron who doesn't comprehend he's wrong even when somebody explains it in polite language.

              It was a thing, it was widely reported, MS changed policies in response, not knowing about the history, or not having personally encountered it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You blather about yourself, instead of looking it up.

            • Microsoft did automatically push Windows 10 via Windows Update for about 1-2 weeks after its initial release.

              Some people didn't get the update, and some people wished they hadn't gotten it.

              Anyway, you said:

              >Never has it been as an option through Windows Update on Windows 7.

              If that were true, why did Microsoft release this update (KB3030265) [microsoft.com] that allowed administrators to suppress the distribution of Windows 10 via Windows Update?

              Maybe you could explain why they are letting users block functionality which---according to you---has never existed.

        • WHen you install a motherboard utility or driver it now triggers WIndows update to see if another update is available.

          This is a known issue in the past year or two as some API is doing this. My guess is he installed a driver which checked Windows Update to see if there is a nwer driver which then triggered Windows 10 to download and install.

          • But Windows 10 has never been served as part of Windows update for Windows 7.. Windows 10 has always been a separate manual installation.
  • Weird that a Win7 system would get the update before a Win10 system. Maybe I'm just lucky. I'm sure it coming though and I most likely will not use it.

    • Re:Win10 system user, no new Edge for me (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Sunday August 02, 2020 @01:17PM (#60357939)

      Weird that a Win7 system would get the update before a Win10 system. Maybe I'm just lucky. I'm sure it coming though and I most likely will not use it.

      Win7 has been pushing various recommendations to users to get the heck off of it for a while now. Internet Explorer has been popping up notifications that users should install Edge, and makes it quite convenient.

      There's a lot of FUD in this story. A ZDNet columnist was sent a complaint from a reader who's wife's Win7 machine did something... and this is news?

      First, up, Edge's post-install wizard walks a user through importing settings from their default browser. Sure, the complaining husband says the wife says she clicked the X, but... evidence suggests she didn't. What evidence? The massive number of Edge installs having been done world-wide which don't import things unasked.

      Sorry, no. Your wife clicked some stuff, not knowing what it does, and is surprised by the results.

      This is almost certainly user error. While it's not impossible for MS to make a mistake in the code - intentional or not - Occam's Razor tells us what happened in this case. Until some investigative journalism happens documenting how and when this happens other than user-induced action, we'd be wise to not get too riled up by this third-person anecdote. Microsoft has done stuff wrong, but this story... is definitely shoddy.

      • "Sorry, no. Your wife clicked some stuff, not knowing what it does, and is surprised by the results"

        I think 'Hubby' needs to lock the computer down tight so his wife does not end up clicking all over websites and downloading some malware that will give them real problems.

        Lock down and restrict the hell out of it so she can't run installers or anything except a few specific programs, and she is restricted to her own user folder. Never give her the admin password.

      • My Win10 computer did a pretty invasive and unprompted install of Edge this weekend, adding a desktop shortcut, a taskbar pin, and a pop-up "tour" on boot that needed multiple clicks to dismiss followed by a separate pop-up highlighting the desktop shortcut. I found it annoying, but not surprising for Microsoft.

      • This is almost certainly user error.

        I can't comment on the current story, but I really hate it when something weird happens on my computer, and nobody believes me because, "User errror!!!", or "It works fine for me!!!"

        When I first installed Win10 on a test system to give it an evaluation, it automatically deleted 11 applications from my machine without notifying me or asking confirmation. I found out the files were gone forever only after the first boot to desktop, and the message center told me the applications were removed because they wer

    • Edge is not forced on Windows machines running "designed for actual work" Operating Systems. The update containing Edgium is only pushed to play computers.

      That said, apparently the Service Pack 1 for Windows 10 2020 will contain Edgium in place of Edge Classic for all versions of Windows 10, including ones for "real computers". That is, provided that it manages to pass the proletariat and is deemed fit for use, and all the Edge Classic crapola is "ripped out of the OS" by that time. Otherwise, "real comp

      • Apparently you mean a domain controlled PC where the adults controlled allowed updates for you. My Win7 pro VM got a forced Edge install, thought set to ask first for update install.

        • They still get the notification.

          Our helpdesk is l,oaded with folks asking to update their browser as IE is no longer supported. When I looked at the tickets it was Windows nagging them to update to Edge based Chromium.

          All it takes is for help desk to install it with their local admin accounts and now everyone wants it. Then we get more tickets why our old software on sharepoint stopped working ... sigh.

    • It's probably a staged roll out. Not everyone gets it at once to reduce the load on Microsoft's servers.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Hairy I would avoid COmodo DNS as they have been hacked and is getting a little shady.

        But this issue at corporate IT is annoying as these ads are tricking our less savey users thinking their browser is broken and needs to be updated and to start calling our help desk for tickets. Some of our less experienced help desk will install it only to then have another ticket why our 2006 era Sharepoint no longer works when they click on the Blue E.

  • ...I do not use wintendo.

    Whichever idiot uses an os which rams anything down their user's throat?

    • Macos, ios, android and even Linux all do it..but maybe in those cases you don't mind

  • Who's data was stolen ? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Sunday August 02, 2020 @01:16PM (#60357937) Homepage

    It was his wife's data that got used in a way that she had not agreed to. If this is happening in Europe then Microsoft is breaking the GDPR in a big way - and I hope that the EU fines them to the full extent.

    • It was his wife's data that got used in a way that she had not agreed to.

      According to her. My Edge imported nothing, not on any machine that has received the update, not even the Windows 7 one. Why hers? I really should check my mother's computer. No doubt her Edge imported everything (as it does when you're *prompted to*). I bet you a Marsbar that my mother would claim she clicked nothing.

    • Does the GDPR cover migrating data from one application on a PC to another application? It's well known (perhaps not to Joe Average, but the info is out there) that Windows applications are free to interoperate and share data with each other. It's part of the core design of the OS from an era when nobody anticipated malicious behavior. Modern OSs lock this down in exchange for less flexible appapp interactivity.

      That said Chrome has a bunch of online connectivity features and, though I haven't looked at it t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        That is an interesting question. Accessing local data purely within Edge doesn't seem to be an issue as far as GDPR goes. It might get synced to Microsoft servers but only if you opted in to that. Arguably when you opted in you were not aware it would steal your Chrome data though so that might be a GDPR violation as they would need to get explicit permission for that use.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by teg ( 97890 )

        Does the GDPR cover migrating data from one application on a PC to another application?

        No, it doesn't. What would be covered is browsing history etc. in general if it is transferred to a server - but how that information is obtained (actual use or import) should not matter.

    • As the data on chrome us publicly available to any other program on the computer, how is it illegal to read that data from the folder and reuse it in the same type of application, and she did do it herself. Edge isn't pushed automatically to windows 7, yes, IE11 might suggest it but she choose to install it, and she choose to import data from the local chrome.

    • It was his wife's data ... If this is happening in Europe then Microsoft is breaking the GDPR in a big way -

      Not if her boyfriend likes Edge.

  • > Or you can try ramming it down people's throats.

    Like Google does on their home page when you use a non-Chrome browser?

    • I don't have to go to Google's web page if I don't want to. I kinda have to start up my desktop PC to do work, though.

  • Huh? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Sunday August 02, 2020 @01:43PM (#60357999)
    So Microsoft stole a bit of data from the mother of all data thieves Google. That's like an MS13 cell hijacking a Sinaloa Cartel cocaine shipment. I see no reason to get upset about this.

    • So Microsoft stole a bit of data from the mother of all data thieves Google. That's like an MS13 cell hijacking a Sinaloa Cartel cocaine shipment. I see no reason to get upset about this.

      Then feel free to use Windows 10, the most insidious piece of spyware ever created.

  • "Stolen"... Don't be ridiculous. You sound like an (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Sunday August 02, 2020 @02:10PM (#60358077)

    My dear, you are running an OS without access restrictions between applications. Everything you are running, is treated as if it was you doing the actions. ... Because you *are*.

    *You* chose to run the OS that runs arbitrary stuff that Microsoft chose. It is your CPU, my love. It blndly does whatever you shove under its nose. And you went "Here, do everything Microsoft tells you to".
    You cannot now claim "it" is doing things you did not want, without being accused of cognitive dissonance.

    Yes, it is malware. It says "Microsoft" on the tin. After the last ... frankly, ... decades, ...: How much more obvious do you want it?

    If you cannot be bothered to inspect what you allow your CPU to do, you have to bite the bullet and let the nanny do what the nanny chose to do.
    And if you want something else, stop being so goddamn lazy and willfully ignorant, man up, and choose your own adventure!
    You wouldn't drive a car with that amount of passivity and cluelessness. Let alone a computer, which is closer to an alien spaceship than to a car, in complexity!

    TL;DR: If you don't want Microsoft, don't use Microsoft. Boo-hoo.

    (Oh boy, wait until I tell you about Google/Chrome!)

  • Importing settings from Chrome is... (Score:5, Informative)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday August 02, 2020 @02:28PM (#60358131)

    One of the things the popup asks if you would like to do. I'll bet a Marsbar the wife clicked Yes on a window that she didn't even read just to make a popup go away.

    • This is known as "dialog fatigue", and when you are getting spammed left and right with warning dialogs, you get sick of it and blindly click "OK" just so the computer will shut up and let you get on with your work.

      • Yes it is. That doesn't mean Edge is stealing data though. It means ZDNet writers don't understand people and are making incorrect claims based on this ignorance.

    • I'll bet a Marsbar the wife clicked Yes on a window that she didn't even read just to make a popup go away.

      I'll take that bet; it was her boyfriend who clicked it. Why else would the Edge installer even have been running?

  • I had to wipe and reinstall a few Win7 systems recently and got groped by M$ with their Edge thingy. Hilarious that M$ states Win7 is EOL but instead of pushing security fixes they push crapware. Simple enough to uninstall and then run CCleaner 5.32 to remove all the broken registry bits. Then a quick run through with Tronscript removes the M$ telemetry crap as well. All is good after that.

  • ..oh I remember, it was that thing I used to download my browser of choice on a fresh install of Windows 10.

  • Who does Microsoft answer to (Score:3)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Sunday August 02, 2020 @05:04PM (#60358541) Homepage
    People who have these issue seem to forget who Microsoft answers to. Here a hint, it is not the users, it the shareholders. If the users could understand this then they would understand why Microsoft does things the user doesn't want.

    I do laugh reading some of the answer that involve multi-step processes involving changing registry settings and installing software etc just to try and retain control and these are the same people who say Linux is too hard.

    I brought a second hand NUC the other day. It had Windows 10 installed on it so I though I would check out what the current Windows UI looks like before replacing it with Linux. I wasted a whole of time just answering questions, some totally unnecessary, to use the system, before I could reach the start screen. A clear reminder to me of who Microsoft answers to.
  • Hold up there cowboy, but isn't this the user's data, not the application's? Don't see how it's in any way "stolen" until it gets sent off to some data-gobbling behemoth. Like, um, Google.
  • Microsoft, stealing? Say it ain't so!

  • on Win7 used Internet Explorer....on their unpatched systems. MS gave plenty of warning to get off Win7.

    Like it or not (I honestly don't care), I see this as a good move in the grand scheme of things because how does most malware get into machines, especially unpatched ones? Through the browser.

    At least with a modern browser, the likelihood is lessened. But of course there's an uproar....because it's Microsoft.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      on Win7 used Internet Explorer

      Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi, Pale Moon. Probably a few others that I've forgotten about. All better than IE. Many better (better behaved) than Edge or Chrome.

  • I have an older laptop I use with Win7+IE for accessing services (e.g. HP iLO) where the remote console won't work on contemporary browsers. I always thought that - as an end-of-life system - Windows 7 would be largely left alone by Microsoft

    One night it did an update, and there was Edge.

    No opt-in beforehand.

    I forget exactly what it asks - but the Uninstall option asked something like 'do you want to keep Edge' and 'Do you want to reinstall it later?' or something similar. It was as though they wanted

    • Did MS make Edge deployment a secret? No. Did they take something away? No. Are you harmed in any way? No. So, what's the problem?

      And have you tried to access those legacy services with Edge's IE mode? Maybe you don't need IE at all anymore. Hardly something to complain about, no?

      • They installed a piece of software without asking first, - I have seen this and it does not ask until it is installed, and then does not uninstall

        They deceptively made it seem that you could not opt out, on a fullscreen window on bootup that it is non-obvious how to exit without agreeing

        • Did they? Was Edge not already installed? Yes, the new version is fundamentally different, but it is still just a new version of already installed software. In other words, an update.

          And, "I didn't look closely enough at the screen I was presented", is hardly justification for vain outrage. You can't accommodate every lazy idiot who just wants to click things away.

  • "...that she hadn't started?"

    AHAHAHAHAwheezeAAAHAHAHAH

    by my rough estimate, about 10% of processes in _any_ modern operating system start because the user explicitly asked.

    The rest are started automatically.

  • What next, are they going to steal users too?

    We better all rally to protect the pseudo-monopoly browser before it loses some of its possessions. /s

  • The new version of Edge hasn't been a secret. Microsoft announced the hell out of it before ever releasing it, and as I recall waited months between the final version and deploying it through Windows Update. So, the article revolves around dubious claims about improbable post-install behavior on a single win7 machine, and wraps it up with a flat-out false claim about how Edge was released.

    It's a load of crap.

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