Configure your privacy settings so they're right for you

Tracking prevention

Trackers are used on websites to collect data about your browsing behavior. Microsoft Edge is designed to detect and block trackers and you can choose what level of tracking prevention to use. Learn more about tracking prevention.

Clear browsing data

Microsoft Edge stores your browsing data, such as sites you've visited, your passwords, info you've entered in forms, and other information. You can clear your browsing data in Microsoft Edge by going to Settings and more  > Settings  > Privacy and services  > Choose what to clear. If sync is turned on, this information is cleared from your device and other synced devices. Learn more about clearing browsing data.

Privacy

• Send “Do Not Track” requests. You can send a “Do Not Track” request when you visit websites. However, some sites might not respond to this request and might still decide to track your web behavior. It is up to the site you visit to honor this request or not.

• Allow sites to check if you have payment info saved. To make filling forms faster, you can save your credit card or debit card info in Microsoft Edge and the browser can automatically fill payment forms with your payment info. The payment info is only shared with the merchant with your permission.

• Manage certificates. You can manage personal authentication certificates and Microsoft trusted certificate authorities.

Help improve Microsoft Edge

Microsoft uses diagnostic data to improve our products and services. We use this data to better understand how our products are performing and where improvements need to be made.  

• Improve Microsoft products by sending data about how you use the browser. You can control whether optional diagnostic data associated with your device is shared with Microsoft to solve product issues and help improve Microsoft products and services. This includes data from testing new experiences. Turning this setting on allows the data to be shared with Microsoft from other applications using Microsoft Edge. For Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, this choice is determined by your Windows diagnostic data setting. For Microsoft Edge on other operating systems, this choice is determined by this setting in the browser. To finish making changes to this setting, restart Microsoft Edge.

• Make searches and Microsoft products better by sending info about websites you visit in Microsoft Edge. You can control whether info about websites you visit is shared with Microsoft. This browsing history info helps Microsoft learn about trends and topics to improve search results, products, and services. This setting also allows Microsoft to receive data from other applications using Microsoft Edge. For Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, this choice is determined by your Windows diagnostic data setting. For Microsoft Edge on other operating systems, this choice is determined by this setting in the browser. To finish making changes to this setting, restart Microsoft Edge.

Personalize your web experience

You can improve your web experience by allowing Microsoft to use the browsing history from this account to personalize advertising, search, news, and other Microsoft services. With your permission, Microsoft Edge can collect and use your browsing history to provide you with more relevant search results, ads, and news. Learn more about personalized advertising and experiences.

You can manage your data that’s saved on the Microsoft cloud and change ad settings from the Microsoft privacy dashboard.

Services

• Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors. In the event of a network issue, Microsoft Edge will make a request without cookies to http://edge.microsoft.com/captiveportal/generate_204 to check the response code for redirection. If redirected, Microsoft Edge will open the redirection in a new tab with the assumption that it’s a sign-in page. This helps connect you to networks such as hotel Wi-Fi.

• Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. SmartScreen prevents you from navigating to known malicious sites and notifies you about suspicious downloads. If you turn on Block potentially unwanted apps, SmartScreen can check the URL of files you download to see if they've been categorized as potentially unwanted apps. Learn more about Windows Defender SmartScreen.

• Address bar. If you turn on Search and site suggestions, Microsoft Edge sends your typed characters to your default search engine, so it can suggest searches and website addresses in the address bar. You can also change your default search engine here.

• Allow extensions to change search engine, new tab page, or home page settings. Turning this on will allow extensions to change the configuration of Microsoft Edge.