Privacy has become more and more of a deal in our online life. Almost every system, app, or device that involves internet access has a set of settings designated to privacy. Well, Microsoft Edge is no different.
To access Privacy Settings in Microsoft Edge, click … icon in Edge, select Settings, and View advanced settings.
You will see a whole section called Privacy and services that consists of about 10 settings related to Privacy.
Now let’s take close look at every single one of them and see whether they need to be adjusted or not.
1. Save password
Since the saved passwords are managed by Windows Credential Vault, it’s safe as long as you have a good password in place. It’s ok that you turn Save Password option on because it makes you a lot easier without memorizing all kinds of passwords for all kinds of websites.
2. Save form entries
It’s on by default, which is fine unless you have concerns about your confidential personal information.
3. Send Do Not Track requests
It’s off by default, but you can turn it on if you want to tell the sites you are visiting to not track your activities.
4. Cortana
It’s On when Cortana is turned on in Windows 10. If you want to take advantage of this Microsoft’s voice assistant, you should leave it on.
5. Cookies
Since many websites are still using Cookies for a variety of purposes, things like your preferences, and settings that make your browsing experience better, you should not block cookies in most cases. But you still have the choice to either Block all cookies or Block only 3rd party cookies in Advanced settings.
6. SmartScreen Filter
SmartScreen Filter is a feature built in Edge to automatically block websites and content downloads that are known to be malicious. When a web page is blocked because it’s known to be malicious, Edge will prompt to let you know what and why it happens. It’s recommended to leave it on at all time because it’s going to protect you from being attacked from the bad content.
It seems inevitable that you have to give up some of your privacy when surfing on the internet, no matter how hard you are trying to hide. If you are concerned about how your personal data is being used by Microsoft, check out their Privacy Statement and take your action accordingly after that.