The company offers a search engine service with a specific emphasis on user privacy and non-personalised search results. The quiet collection of huge amounts of personal data and the limited perspective provided by ‘filter bubble’ search results has encouraged some Internet users to search for alternatives to Google, the world’s leading search giant. Rather than collecting data for ad targeting, DuckDuckGo displays ads based on keywords in search queries.

In a post – which has since been deleted – placed on the forum of security software company Whonix, one participant claimed that DuckDuckGo utilises browser fingerprinting to track users. If true, this would violate the company’s core principles.

“DuckDuckGo is using the Canvas DOMRect API on their search engine […] this can be verified with the ConvasBlocker Firefox add-on by Korbinian Kapsner,” the post said.

Browser fingerprinting is a common technique for learning about the identity (‘fingerprint’) of a web user. Fingerprinting allows for information such as browser type and version, installed plugins and extensions, device information and IP address to be accessed. This allows for a unique fingerprint to be created for each user, even when they may have taken steps to blur their online identity. This fingerprint can then be used to track the individual as they visit different web sites, therefore allowing a company to more precisely target adverts.

DuckDuckGo has strongly denied the claims, which it refers to as “absolutely false”.

Gabe Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, told TechCrunch that the claim was based on a false positive, possibly set off by a command designed to determine the size of the browser window in order to determine how pages should be displayed.

Writing in the forum thread dedicated to the claims, Brian Stoner, VP of Search at DuckDuckGo, said that: “We are absolutely NOT doing any fingerprinting whatsoever […] We use a variety of browser APIs to deliver a search experience that is competitive with Google’s. Many ‘fingerprint’ protection extensions take a scorched-earth approach, blocking any browser API that could be exploited by a bad actor.”

In December 2018, DuckDuckGo published a small study which found that Google continues to personalise search results even when users log out or use a private search mode.

The company offers a search engine service with a specific emphasis on user privacy and non-personalised search results. The quiet collection of huge amounts of personal data and the limited perspective provided by ‘filter bubble’ search results has encouraged some Internet users to search for alternatives to Google, the world’s leading search giant. Rather than collecting data for ad targeting, DuckDuckGo displays ads based on keywords in search queries.

In a post – which has since been deleted – placed on the forum of security software company Whonix, one participant claimed that DuckDuckGo utilises browser fingerprinting to track users. If true, this would violate the company’s core principles.

“DuckDuckGo is using the Canvas DOMRect API on their search engine […] this can be verified with the ConvasBlocker Firefox add-on by Korbinian Kapsner,” the post said.

Browser fingerprinting is a common technique for learning about the identity (‘fingerprint’) of a web user. Fingerprinting allows for information such as browser type and version, installed plugins and extensions, device information and IP address to be accessed. This allows for a unique fingerprint to be created for each user, even when they may have taken steps to blur their online identity. This fingerprint can then be used to track the individual as they visit different web sites, therefore allowing a company to more precisely target adverts.

DuckDuckGo has strongly denied the claims, which it refers to as “absolutely false”.

Gabe Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, told TechCrunch that the claim was based on a false positive, possibly set off by a command designed to determine the size of the browser window in order to determine how pages should be displayed.

Writing in the forum thread dedicated to the claims, Brian Stoner, VP of Search at DuckDuckGo, said that: “We are absolutely NOT doing any fingerprinting whatsoever […] We use a variety of browser APIs to deliver a search experience that is competitive with Google’s. Many ‘fingerprint’ protection extensions take a scorched-earth approach, blocking any browser API that could be exploited by a bad actor.”

In December 2018, DuckDuckGo published a small study which found that Google continues to personalise search results even when users log out or use a private search mode.