Edge imports Firefox data without user consent

[German]Since Microsoft's new Chromium Edge browser was released for Windows, there have been complaints from users that the Edge browser unsolicitedly imports data from Firefox (or other browsers) during installation without user consent.

I don't know if it's such a big issue, but I'll post the corresponding hints as a blog post. Especially for inexperienced users the 'Edge-Setup-Experience' chosen by Microsoft could cause frustration and confusion.

Microsoft's Chromium Edge is rolled out

The new Chromium Edge browser is available as a download since mid-January 2020 for various Windows versions and other operating systems (see Microsoft Microsoft Chromium-Edge released).

Since early of June 2020, Microsoft started delivering the new Chromium Edge browser for various versions of Windows 10. I had the details in the blog post Windows 10: Chromium Edge are rolled out to user. There is also an update for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 available (see Edge Browser Update KB4567409 for Windows 7 and 8.1).

When installing the new Chromium Edge on a new Windows machine, not only a shortcut to the new browser and redirection of file types is done. It is also intended to transfer data from previous versions of Microsoft Edge (e.g. passwords, favorites, open tabs) to the new Microsoft Edge Browser.

Data import without user consent

Privacy-conscious Firefox users have noticed that the Edge Installer goes wild and imports the Firefox data without any user permission. On reddit.com there is this thread where a developer with the alias krankie writes the following. 

I was immediately annoyed at how invasive this. I'm a software developer so I'm sensitive to these sort of UI tricks. What MS has done this time:

• Hit the user with a maximized Edge, with a modal roadblock window that only has one button that says "Get Started"
• No option to get rid of the window, you cannot close Edge with the mouse and you cannot escape the modal window.
• The only option if you don't want to "Get started" is to use task manager to kill it
• Even when you do, it pins itself to your task bar
• It puts an Edge icon on your desktop
• It unsets your default browser, so next time you click a URL from a shortcut, you'll have to re-choose your default browser.
• Apparently it ingests data from other browsers without your permission

Your parents and grand parents are probably using Edge now. They didn't mean to, they just couldn't seem to get it out of the way unless they agreed to "Get Started".

Fuck Microsoft's bullshit. This is the only way they can gain browser marketshare, through trickery and misdirection.

Other posters more or less confirm this experience – even with other browsers like Brave. It's once again the old Microsoft trick, that everything is rigorously adopted and the Firefox user is virtually incapacitated. (via)

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