DuckDuckGo has been caught colluding with Bill Gates

 

DuckDuckGo has been caught colluding with Bill Gates to track users online while misleadingly promoting itself as an advocate of privacy and free speech.

According to a security researcher, DuckDuckGo (DDG) secretly whitelists Microsoft’s trackers as part of a deal with the Big Tech giant.

DDG has made a name for itself as a privacy-first pro-free speech company.

However, earlier this year its CEO Gabriel Weinberg announced that the search engine will begin purging all independent media outlets from the platform, replacing them with “trusted” mainstream media outlets instead.

This unsettled many users who had trusted DDG to behave more ethically than the likes of Google.

Security researcher Zach Edwards first made the discovery and tweeted about it:

"The new DuckDuckGo browsers don't block Microsoft data flows, for LinkedIn or Bing."

DDG CEO Gabriel Weinberg immediately responded to the criticism by attempting to downplay the scandal. He tweeted:

"For non-search tracker blocking (eg in our browser), we block most third-party trackers. Unfortunately our Microsoft search syndication agreement prevents us from doing more to Microsoft-owned properties ... our syndication agreement also has a confidentially provision that prevents disclosing details."

This is why so-called privacy and free-speech products that are beholden to giant corporations can NEVER deliver real privacy or freedom of speech; the business model just doesn't work.