DuckDuckGo Browser Enables Microsoft Trackers

The privacy-focused DuckDuckGo browser allows Microsoft trackers hosted on third-party sites under a search agreement between the two companies.

Bleeping Computer says that the developers of DuckDuckGo have always emphasized privacy and stated that they do not track search queries and user behavior. Also, instead of profiling users to serve interest-based ads, DuckDuckGo uses contextual advertising from partners such as Ads by Microsoft.

By the way, we wrote that Brave and DuckDuckGo help users fight Google tracking, and also that DuckDuckGo devs warn that refuse from third-party cookies does not prevent browser tracking.

While DuckDuckGo does not store any personal identifiers associated with search queries, Microsoft Advertising may track an individual’s IP address and other information when they click on an “account” ad link, although this is claimed to be unrelated to ad profiling.

In addition, DuckDuckGo offers users a native privacy-focused browser for iOS and Android that supports many security features, including HTTPS encryption, third-party cookie blocking, and tracker blocking.

However, recently, during a security audit of the DuckDuckGo browser, security researcher Zach Edwards found that while the browser does block Google and Facebook trackers, it allows Microsoft trackers to continue working. Further testing showed that DuckDuckGo allowed trackers associated with the bing.com and linkedin.com domains while blocking all others.

In response to a lengthy Twitter thread where Edwards described the results of his tests, DuckDuckGo CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg revealed that the company’s browser does enable Microsof trackers to run on third-party sites due to a search syndication agreement.

This statement caused a real uproar on Hacker News, where Weinberg tried to defend the company, talked a lot about transparency and tried to explain the essence of DuckDuckGo’s agreements with Microsoft. In particular, Weinberg made it clear that these restrictions only apply to the DuckDuckGo browser and do not affect the company’s search engine.

As journalists now write, DuckDuckGo does not deny an advertising partnership with Microsoft and tries to comply with the principles of transparency, but it is not entirely clear why the company was silent about this until a researcher accidentally discovered Microsoft trackers. The company now says it’s working to revise its Microsoft agreement and wants to make app store descriptions more transparent.

Interestingly, more recently DuckDuckGo has been heavily criticized by Google for their new Topics and FLEDGE tracking methods. The company wrote:

Now, Bleeping Computer is quoting an official statement from DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg: