DuckDuckGo Browser Found to Be Allowing Microsoft Trackers on Third-Party Sites Despite Privacy-First Claims

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DuckDuckGo Browser Found to Be Allowing

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Trackers on Third-Party Sites Despite Privacy-First Claims

DuckDuckGo browser, which is claimed to be a privacy-first offering, is found to be using a partial treatment on its tracking protection and not restricting

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trackers from loading on third-party websites. The issue has been spotted by a researcher on the DuckDuckGo browser available for both Android and iOS devices. However, the privacy issue is claimed to not affect the DuckDuckGo search engine, which competes against

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and

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’s

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by offering an all-private option.

Researcher Zach Edwards

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his findings on

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through which it has been revealed that the DuckDuckGo browser for mobile devices is not blocking scripts owned by

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on non-

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sites. The researcher demonstrated the issue by visiting

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’s Workplace.com site on the browser. While it notified about blocking

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and

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trackers, the browser did not mention any details about blocking trackers from

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.

The researcher showed that both Android and iOS versions of the DuckDuckGo browser did not restrict data transfers to

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’s LinkedIn and

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ads.

You can capture data within the DuckDuckGo so-called private browser on a website like

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’s and you’ll see that DDG does NOT stop data flows to

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’s Linkedin domains or their

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advertising domains.

iOS + Android proof:
????????????‍????????

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????????????

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— ℨ???????????? ???????????????????????????? (@thezedwards)

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Interestingly, DuckDuckGo

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on app store listings that its mobile browser offers “seamless protections from third-party trackers while you search and browse.” This is, however, apparently not the case.

DuckDuckGo Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg

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to Edwards’ thread on

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to acknowledge that the browser does allow

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trackers to load on third-party websites. He said that it happens due to the “search syndication agreement” between

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and DuckDuckGo that prevents the latter from restricting

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scripts on non-

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sites.

However, the executive added that the company had been “continually pushing and expects to be able to do more soon” on the matter.

Giving further clarity on the issue that has resulted in a strong criticism among DuckDuckGo users and privacy advocates, Weinberg

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on

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that the company was working with

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to reduce or remove the limitation.

“I understand this is all rather confusing because it is a search syndication contract that is preventing us from doing a non-search thing. That’s because our product is a bundle of multiple privacy protections, and this is a distribution requirement imposed on us as part of the search syndication agreement that helps us privately use some

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results to provide you with better private search results overall,” he explained.

Primarily, the major concern with not restricting

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from loading its trackers on third-party websites is due to DuckDuckGo’s claims of being a privacy-focussed browser. Weinberg said that the company was working on updates to its app store descriptions to make things clear to users.

It is important to note that while the DuckDuckGo browser has been allowing

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trackers on third-party websites, Weinberg claimed that this is not the case with its search engine.

“To be clear, when you load our search results, you are completely anonymous, including ads. We also block third-party cookies in our browsers, including those from

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-owned properties,” he said on

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.

However, it is worth noting here that since DuckDuckGo uses

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Advertising platform on its search engine,

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gets access to users’ IP address and user-agent string the moment they click on any ads available on search results. It has been defined in the search engine’s

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.

Weinberg acknowledged this limitation and pointed out that there are many constraints that are limiting DuckDuckGo from offering full-fledged protection to users.

But nonetheless, the way the browser did not provide any clarity to users until the privacy concern brought into limelight by the researcher questions the fairness of DuckDuckGo for its users.

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also — as one can expect — has maintained its silence on the matter.

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duckduckgo browser

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trackers ad tracking issue duckduckgo browser,duckduckgo,

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#DuckDuckGo #Browser #Allowing #

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#Trackers #ThirdParty #Sites #PrivacyFirst #Claims

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