‘Privacy’ Search Engine DuckDuckGo Smoked Over Hidden Tracking Agreement With Microsoft

DuckDuckGo, the search engine which claims to offer ‘real privacy’ because it doesn’t track searches or store users’ history, has come under fire after a security researcher discovered that the mobile DuckDuckGo browser app contains a third-party tracker from Microsoft.

Researcher Zach Edwards found that while Google and Facebook’s trackers are blocked, trackers related to bing.com and linkedin.com were also being allowed through.

You can capture data within the DuckDuckGo so-called private browser on a website like Facebook’s https://t.co/u8W44qvsqF and you’ll see that DDG does NOT stop data flows to Microsoft’s Linkedin domains or their Bing advertising domains.

iOS + Android proof:
👀🫥😮‍💨🤡⛈️⚖️💸💸💸 pic.twitter.com/u3Q30KIs7e

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

In response to the revelation, CEO Gabriel Weinberg essentially shrugged – telling BleepingComputer that the company offers “above-and-beyond protection” that other browsers don’t, but that he ‘never promised’ anonymity when browsing.

“We have always been extremely careful to never promise anonymity when browsing, because that frankly isn’t possible given how quickly trackers change how they work to evade protections and the tools we currently offer,” he said.

“When most other browsers on the market talk about tracking protection, they are usually referring to 3rd-party cookie protection and fingerprinting protection, and our browsers for iOS, Android, and our new Mac beta, impose these restrictions on third-party tracking scripts, including those from Microsoft. What we’re talking about here is an above-and-beyond protection that most browsers don’t even attempt to do — that is, blocking third-party tracking scripts before they load on 3rd party websites,” he continued.

“Because we’re doing this where we can, users are still getting significantly more privacy protection with DuckDuckGo than they would using other browsers.”

In short, DuckDuckGo doesn’t provide the type of privacy they’ve earned a reputation for – they simply betray users the least.

As TechRadar notes, this didn’t go over well.

The news quickly drew in crowds of dissatisfied users, with DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg, soon chiming in to confirm the authenticity of the findings. 

Apparently, DuckDuckGo has a search syndication agreement with the software giant from Redmond, with Weinberg adding that the restrictions are only found in the browser, and are not related to the search engine. 

What remains unknown is why the company who is known for its transparency decided to keep this agreement a secret for as long as it could. -TechRadar

See Edwards’ entire May 23 Twitter thread below:

DuckDuckGo has browser extensions & their own browsers for iOS / Android @ https://t.co/2Il4VrBVqc

iOS @ https://t.co/srtR22gtfS

Android @ https://t.co/STtTve3vS7

Both versions of the DDG browser claims to use tools which
“automatically blocks hidden third-party trackers” 👀 pic.twitter.com/amhdT0w3Ru

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

I don’t have the full list of advertising domains that the DuckDuckGo browser is allowing to collect data within their new “private” browser ((anyone have that or parsed it somewhere??) but any list that doesn’t include “linkedin[.]com” + “bing[.]com” is *purposefully* broken. pic.twitter.com/xjkcWafZqD

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

But you won’t find any public articles from DuckDuckGo explaining *why* they are not blocking Microsoft-owned 3rd party data flows on websites *not* owned by Microsoft, like on Facebook’s Workplace[.]com domain sending data to Bing & Linkedin in the DDG “private” browser. 👀🤡⛈️ pic.twitter.com/ATS4J7aBhE

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

You can capture data within the DuckDuckGo so-called private browser on a website like Facebook’s https://t.co/u8W44qvsqF and you’ll see that DDG does NOT stop data flows to Microsoft’s Linkedin domains or their Bing advertising domains.

iOS + Android proof:
👀🫥😮‍💨🤡⛈️⚖️💸💸💸 pic.twitter.com/u3Q30KIs7e

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

So another question to ask: if you were a DDG privacy researcher who knew that Microsoft has a variety of domains they use for cross-site tracking to optimize their ads systems, and you already knew that DDG was giving IP address & UA string data to MSFT, did you know this too?👀 pic.twitter.com/08ryUFY6rH

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

Personally, I think that both Google & Apple have an obligation to users within their app marketplaces to remove apps which claim to do X, Y, Z, but do the opposite, merely because it makes the parent company more money.

If you say you block 3rd party data flows, *do that* …

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

I don’t think there is a public list of *all* the domains that the DuckDuckGo browser is *not* blocking, but they seem to be doing this w/ hardcoded rules. The DDG browser stops data flows from tons of domains…. except DDG’s #1 ad tech partner.

Mysterious! 🤡⛈️⚖️📴📴 pic.twitter.com/mdC78ihRfr

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

I won’t hold my breath that DuckDuckGo will update their own so-called private browser to actually stop data flows to their own ad tech partners, but this is one of those things that makes a privacy auditor … annoyed? bitter? confrontational?

Does Google / Apple care? pic.twitter.com/SB0jrizrVi

— ℨ𝔞𝔠𝔥 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022