DuckDuckGo is reportedly slammed by Brave CEO over a supposed Microsoft deal. It is also reported that harsh words are being exchanged between the two CEOs.
DuckDuckGo Slammed Over Supposed Microsoft Deal
The CEO of brave which is a popular crypto-oriented browser has reportedly slammed its rival DuckDuckGo over its relationship and affiliation to Microsoft and the wider online tracker controversy. Just recently, the mobile browser of DuckDuckGo has been seen to be allowing trackers from Microsoft to operate freely while at the same time blocking those of Facebook and Google.
The security researcher who first discovered the problem, Zach Edwards also later found out that trackers related to the linkedin.com and bing.com domains were being allowed passage through the blocks also.
What DuckDuckGo’s CEO Has to Say about the Issue
Duckduckgo CEO, Gabriel Weinberg at the time said, ‘For non-search tracker blocking (e.g. in our browser), we block most third-party trackers (opens in new tab).’ He added ‘Unfortunately our Microsoft search syndication agreement prevents us from doing more to Microsoft-owned properties. However, we have been continually pushing and expect to be doing more soon.’
Misleading Statements Claims
CEO of brave, Brendan Eich on the other hand is now saying that Edwards was not coming clean in regards to the matter as DuckDuckGo is also allowing Microsoft trackers to work around third-party cookie blocking through appended URL parameters.
Brave CEO cited that ‘Trackers try to get around cookie blocking by appending identifiers to URL query parameters, to ID you across sites’. He further stated that the browsing platform DuckDuckGo knows this too very well.
Brendan Eich says ‘DuckDuckGo removes Google’s ‘gclid’ and Facebook’s ‘fbclid’. He added ‘Test it yourself by visiting https://example.org/?fbclid=sample in [DuckDuckGo]’s macOS browser. The ‘fbclid’ value is removed. However, DuckDuckGo does not apply this protection to Microsoft’s ‘msclkid’ query parameter. Microsoft’s documentation specifies that ‘msclkid’ exists to circumvent third-party cookie protections in browsers (including in Safari’s browser engine used by DDG on Apple OSes).’
What DuckDuckGo Has To Say About Braves Comments
DuckDuckGo has verbally and strongly disagreed with the conclusions of Brave’s CEO, citing that he is misleading the readers.
The Register cited a spokesperson from the company saying ‘What Brendan seems to be referring to here is our ad clicks only, which is protected in our agreement with Microsoft as strictly non-profiling (private).’ He added ‘That is these ads are privacy protected and how he’s framed it is ultimately misleading. Brendan, of course, kept the fact that our ads are private out and there is really nothing new here given everything has already been disclosed.’
