DuckDuckGo will soon block Microsoft tracking scripts on third-party websites. The company does mention the exception of a script on its own platform that allows advertisers to see if Microsoft ads have led to more customers.
Gabriel Weinberg, the CEO of DuckDuckGo, commented on the discovery of security researcher Zach Edwards in a blog post. He discovered in May of this year that both the browser app on iOS and Android, as well as the browser extensions, allowed Microsoft scripts to pass through on some websites and thus made third-party tracking possible. Weinberg then stated that this was part of an agreement with Microsoft over the use of Bing search results in DuckDuckGo.
“That agreement has now ended,” said the man. He also writes that DuckDuckGo has not had, or currently has, a similar agreement with any other company. Weinberg does mention one exception and that is bat.bing.com. Through this script, advertisers can check whether their clicked Microsoft ads also led to more conversions from customers. DuckDuckgo still allows this script, but only with Microsoft advertisements on its own platform. Users who also want to see the bat.bing.com script blocked have the option to disable ads in DuckDuckGo entirely.
DuckDuckGo partners with Microsoft on its own platform to serve ads. The search engine states that it does not collect any user data when the ads are viewed on its platform. According to DuckDuckGo, Microsoft also does not profile Internet users when they click on a Microsoft ad on DuckDuckGo. The change to DuckDuckGo will be coming in a few weeks, according to Weinberg, and will apply to the website and apps. The beta versions of the apps will follow next month.
