How to turn off the feature in Edge that sends all the images you see to Microsoft

There is no doubt that Microsoft Edge is a good web browser, offering better performance along with a host of additional possibilities for its users, but it is not a browser that can feel privacy-focused.

And it is that if we discovered years ago that there was a feature that reports search history to Microsoft, whether it is the search engine used, with the ability to deactivate, or months ago there was a possible bug due to which browsing history was sent to the Bing API, now from Newwin It alerts us to another potentially problematic feature that is enabled by default.

Untrusted Privacy Record

In this sense, and based on the release of Edge on Channel Canary, the aforementioned post was able to learn more about the existence of a function called “Super Resolution”, which consists of automatically improving the quality of images on the web that you find in low resolution.

As defined by Microsoft: “A high definition improves the clarity, sharpness, brightness, and contrast of images on the Web.” Good for now until you know that the function sends all images viewed on the web using Edge to Microsoft’s servers.

There is no selection of photos, all seen are sent

In other words, the function does not send the screen to send the images that need optimization, but rather sends all images, indiscriminately, that are viewed using the Edge browser.

This process can feel bad for those who normally view private family photos, where minors may be present, and don’t realize that viewing them online using Edge means those photos also end up on Microsoft’s servers.

steps to disable it

To disable Ultra Resolution, you need to follow these steps:

Launch Microsoft Edge and open the main menu.
Go to Settings > Privacy, Search and Services.
Scroll down and turn off the Image optimization in Microsoft Edge option

This will prevent any more images from being sent to Microsoft’s servers, at least until there are improvements to the functionality. In this regard, in the current version available on the Canary channel, this function allows you to specify specific websites where you do not want to process images, allowing you to indicate, for example, family photo albums that can be found online .

All that remains is to wait for it to reach other users, there are those who can give it a new chance, as long as they attach importance to seeing the photos as best they can.

Edge has similar functionality for natively playing videos

Remarkably, Edge has a similar functionality but targets videos using artificial intelligence to enhance them, taking the entire process locally through discrete graphics cards, without having to send it to Microsoft’s servers.

via: Newen