Privacy researcher: DuckDuckGo lets Microsoft scripts through on some websites

Privacy researcher Zach Edwards has discovered that DuckDuckGo maintains a list of domain names that allow Microsoft scripts to pass through. The founder of DuckDuckGo admits this and states that this is part of an agreement with the American company.

Zach Edwards examined the web traffic of DuckDuckGo’s iOS and Android apps. He determined that Microsoft scripts were allowed on third-party websites such as Facebook’s workplace.com, although DuckDuckGo on his website writes that it has made an arrangement with Microsoft whereby data is only shared with the American company when Microsoft advertisements are clicked. That data includes the user’s full IP address and user agent string. “DuckDuckGo does not write anything on its website about why they do not block data flows to Microsoft on third-party websites,” said Edwards, who also refers to the general anti-tracking measures from DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo’s CEO and founder, Gabriel Weinberg, responded to the discovery and stated that most third-party trackers in the DuckDuckGo apps are indeed blocked. The man refers to a commitment to Microsoft that forces the company to allow some of their trackers. Weinberg is said to be working behind the scenes on a solution, but cannot say much about the content of the agreement due to contractual obligations for the time being.