Why Does Edge Know My Real Birthday?⁠😱
Updated  by  nm  24-March-24

What happened

Recently I used Windows’ default web browser, Edge, to go to a web page that had a sign-⁠up form and – surprisingly to me – the form was automatically filled with some of my private information. This was surprising because…

• I always tell Edge to not remember a password,
• I have never told Edge to remember the fields in a form I filled out, and
• none of my Windows devices are associated with a Microsoft account.¹

Since I’m a privacy nut and do not want my browsers to know my PII (personally identifiable information)² this freaked me out.⁠😱

So I wondered:

1. Where was this PII coming from?
2. How could I remove it?
3. How could I tell Edge to never save and never autofill forms?

About edge:// URLs

To answer these three questions, I spent a lot of time searching and browsing my Edge settings. The fastest way to get to the relevant settings pages is to use edge:// URLs. To view a list of edge:// URLs, put the following in Edge’s address bar:

edge://edge-urls

And press Enter. In March 2024, the following was displayed on my system.

edge://about
edge://accessibility
edge://app-service-internals
edge://app-settings
edge://application-guard-internals
edge://apps
edge://attribution-internals
edge://augloop-internals
edge://autofill-internals
edge://blob-internals
edge://bluetooth-internals
edge://browser-essentials
edge://collected-cookies-dialog
edge://commerce-internals
edge://compat
edge://components
edge://conflicts
edge://connectors-internals
edge://crashes
edge://credits
edge://data-viewer
edge://device-log
edge://discards
edge://download-internals
edge://downloads
edge://edge-dlp-internals
edge://edge-urls
edge://enp
edge://extensions
edge://extensions-internals
edge://favorites
edge://flags
edge://floc-internals
edge://gcm-internals
edge://gpu
edge://help
edge://histograms
edge://history
edge://history-clusters-internals
edge://indexeddb-internals
edge://inspect
edge://interstitials
edge://launch-source
edge://local-state
edge://mam-internals
edge://management
edge://media-engagement
edge://media-internals
edge://metrics-internals
edge://modules
edge://net-export
edge://net-internals
edge://network-errors
edge://newtab
edge://ntp-tiles-internals
edge://omnibox
edge://on-device-internals
edge://optimization-guide-internals
edge://password-manager
edge://password-manager-internals
edge://policy
edge://pre-launch-fre
edge://predictors
edge://prefs-internals
edge://print
edge://private-aggregation-internals
edge://process-internals
edge://profile-internals
edge://push-internals
edge://quota-internals
edge://sandbox
edge://serviceworker-internals
edge://settings
edge://signin-internals
edge://site-engagement
edge://suggest-internals
edge://super-resolution-popup
edge://sync-internals
edge://system
edge://tab-search.top-chrome
edge://terms
edge://topics-internals
edge://tracing
edge://translate-internals
edge://ukm
edge://usb-internals
edge://user-actions
edge://version
edge://web-app-internals
edge://webrtc-internals
edge://webrtc-logs
edge://webxr-internals

The Edge settings discussed below are available from the edge://settings page.

My questions

1. Where was this PII coming from?

Some of my PII² was displayed on a single line on:

edge://wallet/personalinfo

To view all the saved info, I clicked the “More actions” ellipsis (…) to the right of the line of info, chose Edit, and then got even more freaked out because it had my real birthday.😖

2. How could I remove it?

To remove the saved info, I again clicked the “More actions” ellipsis (…) and this time chose Delete.

3. How could I tell Edge to never save and never autofill forms?

To tell Edge to no longer save and autofill form info, I went to

edge://wallet/settings

and in the “Personal info” section near the bottom of that page, switched off both of these:

• Save and fill basic info
• Automatically fill my info on sign up forms

My conclusions

• I remembered that autofill is a dark pattern. To learn about this, see Smashing Magazine’s The Autofill Dark Pattern.
• I remembered that I should not use Edge. But, in case I accidentally do, I need to regularly check the above settings and make sure Edge has not changed them (which it tends to do when Windows or Edge updates⁠😒).
• As a form of activism-hacktivism✊, I decided to write this article to spread the word about this invasion of privacy.

Endnotes