Only one name comes to mind when it comes to privacy-friendly search engines: DuckDuckGo. As narrow as it is, the company has managed to spin its success in other directions, including a privacy-focused browser for Android and iOS that is reportedly devoid of trackers. According to a new revelation, DuckDuckGo’s cooperation with Microsoft may have lost the company its position as a “no tracking” provider.
As detailed by Bleeping Computer, privacy researcher Zach Edward recently discovered that, while DuckDuckGo’s browser stopped sites like Facebook and Google from using trackers to scrape user data, Microsoft’s websites — including LinkedIn and Bing — bypassed this blockade entirely. It goes against the search engine’s biggest selling point, and more specifically, undermines the entire reason the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser exists.
To his credit, CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg quickly admitted that the browser does, in fact, allow Microsoft to evade its tracking filters within the browser, and that this is done on purpose. According to Weinberg, it all comes down to the two firms’ search syndication agreement, which allows DuckDuckGo to use Bing results in its search results. It’s the most important component of a collection of over 400 sources, which includes Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha. Weinberg further highlighted that this agreement only applies to the browser and not the search engine.
Still, it’s difficult to justify when the app’s main selling point — literally the first line of its Play Store listing — is to disable trackers on the user’s behalf. Following Edward’s discovery on Twitter two days ago, Weinberg stated that the company was working with Microsoft to remove this specific stipulation from the contract, as well as offering a clarification update to the Play Store and App Store listings. The CEO also issued a statement to Bleeping Computer, emphasizing that, while its browser isn’t flawless, it is still significantly more private than the competitors, with faster load speeds. As Weinberg points out, DuckDuckGo’s browser has never guaranteed complete anonymity. Hopefully, this is an opportunity for the organization to improve.
Google Pixel Watch 4
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8
Keep Reading
The Huawei Nova 17 Air is beginning to take shape in leaks, with the latest report pointing to a possible debut window of late November or early December this year. If accurate, it would mark the first Airy-branded model in the Nova lineup. Weibo leaker SuperDimensional reported that the Huawei Nova 17 Air, also referred […]
Early Geekbench results for the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 show almost no CPU improvement over the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4, with the older chip actually edging it out in single-core performance. GPU gains look more promising, sitting around 20%, but raw processing power appears to be largely unchanged. Typically, when a company like Qualcomm releases […]
New software launches rarely go off without a hitch, and Android 17 is proving no different. Shortly after the update rolled out, Pixel owners began reporting connectivity problems — specifically, losing access to 5G entirely after installing the update. Reports surfaced on the Google Pixel subreddit, with multiple users across different device generations describing the […]
Huawei’s next Kirin 5G chipsets for the Mate 90 series are expected to deliver a meaningful performance step up over the 2025 versions, driven by a shift away from Moore’s Law toward Tau’s Scaling Law. According to a new leak, HarmonyOS 7 is being developed with this architectural shift in mind. Weibo leaker @FixedFocus reports […]
The Honor X70 Pro Max has arrived without any formal launch event, slipping onto the market with a focus on durability, battery endurance, and a capable Qualcomm chipset. The phone comes in four color options: Phantom Purple, Sunburst Gold, Bamboo Rhythm Green, and Phantom Night Black. It measures 161.9 x 76.1 x 7.76mm and weighs […]
If Samsung Messages is still the default texting app on a Galaxy phone, July is going to require some attention. The app is being deactivated for US users, and texts, RCS conversations, and message history stored inside it won’t move anywhere on their own. Everything is transitioning to Google Messages – and while the migration […]
Comments & Discussions
Join the conversation! We use Disqus to handle comments. Click the button below to load the comment section.