Forum Discussion
I've been mainly using Bing engine for the past 3 months and this is my review
I must agree with you on all counts! Previously, I was a died in the wool Google, Chrome, and Android fan. A few years back, I began to see the ever growing evils of Google, as a company, in regard to data mining and privacy. The general plan of action for most folks waking up to this reality has been to shift over to the Firefox browser and start using an alternative search engine such as DuckDuckGo. Likewise, I chose that same path. However, when the new Edge Dev channel opened up, I began testing it as an alternative browser solution while still using DuckDuckGo. Since DDG is essentially relies on Bing for results, and I liked those, I started testing the use of Bing directly. Primary test was to see if ads related to searches started following me around the web.
With time, I have developed confidence in what I was seeing. Using the new Edge with the same key privacy extensions (uBlock Origin, Cookie AutoDelete, etc.) I have become increasingly more convinced that I am receiving an overall experience on par with that if using Firefox and DuckDuckGo.
The key difference, of course, is that Microsoft is retaining all of our search data whereas DDG is not. So, as you said, it really boils down to this...
"Bing also gives me peace of mind knowing that my data and privacy is being handled by a company that revolves around providing services and not data mining."
If Microsoft (Bing) continues to build on that piece of mind, showing that the data collected is really used for software improvement and user experience then I see a bright future for Edge & Bing as a product combo. The new browser is proving to be incredible, VERY privacy focused, and Bing now offers a great user experience and seems to be taking privacy seriously as well.
Edge helps protect your privacy from others on the web, but it does send hardware UUID information to Microsoft...
Agreed. I am good with collecting the data necessary for product improvement. The ongoing design and success of the new Edge would be tough to steer if navigating blindly. Trust from the users that data collected does not start getting leveraged for other purposes is the key. Those with their eyes open see what Chrome/Google has become. The typical departure from that evil empire was Firefox. So far, Microsoft appears to be offering a strong alternative. I have not come to that level of trust easily and will bolt at the first sign that I was incorrect.
- That's expected, they never said it's anonymous, nothing is anonymous on the Internet.
these days, you have to choose which company gets you data, because that's just the only choice once you're connected to the Internet.
