Microsoft has fixed a vulnerability in its Edge browser that was reportedly stealing Chrome tabs and data. The company issued a fix in the latest Microsoft Edge update, saying that Edge has a feature that provides an option to import browser data on each launch from other browsers with user consent. “This feature’s state might not have been syncing and displaying correctly across multiple devices. This is fixed,” said the company in its update.
The fix means that the “setting for controlling the automatic import of browsing data wasn’t syncing and displaying correctly across devices,” reports The Verge. Recently, Firefox browser developer Mozilla commissioned independent researchers and experts in harmful design to investigate Microsoft’s tactics and the impact on consumers. They published a report detailing how Microsoft prevents effective browser choice on Windows.
In the report, they documented how Microsoft places its own browser — Edge — at the center of its operating system and “weaponises Windows’ user interface design to undermine people selecting rival browsers,” the report mentioned. “This kind of behaviour is particularly concerning for an independent browser like Firefox, which is reliant on the operating systems provided by companies who are also rival browser vendors,” said Mozilla. Now, with the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union, “we hope that the barriers to browser competition would be dismantled”.