[Shared404]

All valid points. Much appreciated.

I was coming from a position of "Why would MS remove anything instead of redirecting it to themselves", but failed to consider that they would be adding things themselves to prevent other tracking.

[ocdtrekkie]

And don't get me wrong, I agree Microsoft is no saint on data collection. I use Firefox and encourage others to do so. But I'd recommend Edge over Chrome because I consider tracking prevention so necessary for safe browsing.

Microsoft's data collection and use seems primarily to be focused on telemetry for product improvement. They obviously do it in Edge too. I find it less malicious than ad targeting, but I'm strongly opposed to mandatory telemetry. And I think telemetry-driven development is a mistake that should be avoided. It dehumanizes software support and still provides incomplete information, while also violating the privacy of your users.