In May, the privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo suffered backlash from the community after a post revealed that while the browser blocks Google and Facebook trackers, it allows Microsoft trackers to continue to work.
At the time, the company’s CEO made a statement about what was going on, saying that he did not allow all or even most of Microsoft’s tracking attempts on his browsers and promised changes. Now DuckDuckGo is announcing increased protection against Microsoft trackers through its browsing apps.
Starting next week, DuckDuckGo will expand the third-party tracking scripts it blocks from loading on websites to include scripts from Microsoft. This update applies to iOS and Android apps and browser extensions. The beta version of the applications will appear next month.
DuckdDuckGo CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg says:
This default web tracking protection is not offered by most other popular browsers and works on top of many other DuckDuckGo web tracking protections. What all this means is that our apps and browsing extensions now provide stronger protection against Microsoft trackers by default than Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and others.
Also, to help clear up some of the other misconceptions around, Microsoft scripts have never been used in our search engine or apps that don’t track you. Websites embed these scripts for their own purposes, which is why they never sent any information to DuckDuckGo. In addition, we have already limited Microsoft tracking with other web tracking protections, such as blocking third-party Microsoft cookies in our browsers.
DuckDuckGo will also offer a new help page that offers a “comprehensive explanation of all web tracking protections” that the browser provides across platforms. The company also publishes its tracker protection list so people can see for themselves what DuckDuckGo is blocking and report any issues.
Last but not least, the company explains how it works on private ad conversions. According to Weinberg, “advertising on DuckDuckGo is done in partnership with Microsoft,” but viewing ads in the browser is anonymous because “Microsoft has made a commitment not to profile users for ad clicks.”
To measure the effectiveness of ads on DuckDuckGo, advertisers want to know if clicks on their ads are converting into purchases (conversions). To see this in Microsoft Advertising, they use Microsoft scripts from the bat.bing.com domain. Currently, if an advertiser wants to detect conversions for their own ads that are shown on DuckDuckGo, third-party tracker download protection will not block requests from bat.bing.com to download on the advertiser’s website after clicks on DuckDuckGo ads, but these requests are blocked. in all other contexts, as described above. For those who wish to avoid this, there is an option to disable ads in DuckDuckGo’s search settings.
The company plans to eventually phase out the bat.bing domain while working on a private ad conversions architecture that can be externally verified as non-profiling.
Last but not least, DuckDuckGo shares a list of Microsoft domains where the company will block tracking requests:
adnxs.com adnxs-simple.com adsymptotic.com adv-cloudfilse.azureedge.net app-fnsp-matomo-analytics-prod.azurewebsites.net azure.com azure.net bing.com cdnnwlive.azureedge.net clear.ms dynamic. com fp-cdn.azureedge.net licdn.com linkedin.com live-tfs-omnilytics.azurewebsites.net msecnd.net nlo-stl-web.azureedge.net nuance.com pestcontrol-uc1.azureedge.net sdtagged.azureedge.net serviceschipotlecom.trafficmanager.net
How do you feel about these changes that DuckDuckGo is making? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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