The CEO further explained in a comment on Hacker News that the “ search syndication agreement currently prevents us from stopping Microsoft-owned scripts from loading, though we can still apply our browser's protections post-load (like 3rd party cookie blocking and others mentioned above, and do). However, we have been continually pushing and expect to be doing more soon.”

Unfortunately our Microsoft search syndication agreement prevents us from doing more to Microsoft-owned properties. Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo, confirmed this fact in a tweet, stating, “ For non-search tracker blocking (eg in our browser), we block most third-party trackers. The lack of an explanation for this tracking protection exemption raises questions regarding the purpose and motivation for this divergence from DuckDuckGo’s outspoken stance on protecting user privacy.Īs it turns out, the DuckDuckGo search engine is powered by Microsoft’s own Bing search engine, and DuckDuckGo’s agreement with Microsoft includes stipulations that DuckDuckGo not block Microsoft’s LinkedIn and Bing advertising domains. This message may give the user the impression that the browser blocks all Microsoft-owned third-party trackers, but, as the PCAPDroid connection logs show, that impression would be mistaken.ĭuckDuckGo’s Privacy Configuration repository includes among a list of domains for which cookie protections are disabled “due to site breakage issues.” However, this list does not include px. Interestingly, if the third-party clarity.ms tracker, which is a Microsoft-owned user behavior analytics tool, is present on the first site visited by the user, the app informs the user that it blocked Microsoft’s attempt to track the user. When a user first install’s DuckDuckGo’s browser, it prompts the user to visit a website to see what trackers the browser blocks.

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