Known for its commitment to the protection of personal data, DuckDuckGo (DDG) is not immune to certain contradictions. This is the case, in particular, in its DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser. This web browser for iOS and Android promises to automatically eliminate third-party trackers “hiding on websites”. A very noble task.
But is it true? Not quite, as security researcher Zack Edwards has just noted. Analyzing the browser’s web feeds, he noticed that Microsoft’s trackers were never stopped, while for others, the cleaning job was quite efficient.
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— ℨ??? ??????? (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022
Zack Edwards posted his results on Twitter, which no doubt created some unease at DDG. Because its CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, very quickly replied to these messages. He confirmed this hole in the racket, and explained that it resulted from a commercial agreement with Microsoft.
Indeed, the Redmond firm provides DDG with advertisements based on the results of its search engine. The CEO specifies that the user remains “completely anonymous”because the ads are not based on profiling.
Again, this is not completely accurate, as Microsoft collects the browser’s IP address and user-agent, which can be considered identifiers. But this data would only be used for accounting, and would not be used for any other purpose, nor shared with third parties.
Also see video:
This trade agreement is not new. What we did not know, however, is that it contains ” unfortunately “ a clause that prevents the DDG Browser from eliminating Microsoft’s trackers.
“We are working with Microsoft to remove this restriction (…) We are also working on updates to our descriptions in the application stores”specifies Gabriel Weinberg, who visibly noticed that there was a certain lack of transparency on his part in this affair.
This story is all the more embarrassing as DDG does not hesitate to tap on Google and its tracking methods as soon as the opportunity arises. Sure, finding yourself in the watered sprinkler position now doesn’t have to be very comfortable.
Source : Bleeping Computer