DuckDuckGo has become the preferred alternative for those who value privacy. However, the latest discovery seems to refer to the service It was never as special as it led us to believe. A new “gap” in the terms of the application has been reported by a security researcher, and it could lead to serious consequences for users.
DuckDuckGo It has sold itself and its browser service as one focused on offering as much privacy as possible to those who use it. However, it seems that There is only one company that excludes the company: Microsoft. According to Shivan Kaul Sahib, a security researcher, in his account on TwitterDuckDuckGo will reveal the user’s IP address for Redmond services.
That’s awful. DuckDuckGo has a search agreement with Microsoft that prevents them from blocking MS trackers. And they can’t talk about it.
This is why privacy products owned by giant corporations can never offer true privacy; Business model just doesn’t work.
Shivan Cowell, owner of a security researcher
As you know, bing It is one of the major search engines from which DuckDuckGo derives results to show. Thus, every time a user clicks on an advertisement from Redmond, The Service discloses your IP address to Microsoft Advertising servers. However, this is something many users already know, and it is explicitly described in a file Service site.
However, there is a stronger development. As detailed by Shivan Kaol Sahib, the DuckDuckGo mobile browser Microsoft trackers are not allowed to be blocked on third party websites. Among them, we have high-ranking pages such as Facebook or Workplace.
DuckDuckGo CEO Explains
Of course the company decided to comment on it. As DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg explains through posts on Twitter, Microsoft can’t access your browser searches. Additionally, he comments that all of the company’s cookies are also blocked by its services. However, by visiting a website that contains Microsoft trackers, your information will be exposed to other platforms such as Bing and LinkedIn.
Of course, the thing they haven’t finished explaining is How Microsoft accesses data from third-party trackers. Of course, this sparked concern among the community of supporters behind the service. Unfortunately, it looks like we won’t be able to learn much either, because DuckDuckGo had already signed a confidentiality agreement with those from Redmond at the time.
Yes, although our Search Sharing Agreement allows us to block third-party cookies from MSFT (eg, from LI) on domains that are not owned by MSFT (eg, in the workplace), it does not allow us to Currently doing more than that. which we are actively working to change.
This is why privacy products owned by giant corporations can never offer true privacy; Business model just doesn’t work.Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo
Although DuckDuckGo has reported that it is working hard to improve the agreements it has with Microsoft, There are certain things that attract attention in its history.
For example, we can’t help but wonder why this service sale privacy banner He never comments anything about him to his users. Of course we are aware of this non-disclosure agreement but they could have saved a lot of fuss by mentioning the rest of the information on their website.
The truth is DuckDuckGo does not provide the level of privacy you tried to sell us. Still a good alternative If you want to keep your information safe online; But now keep in mind that, at least for now, you’ll have to make an exception for Microsoft.
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