Apple held talks with DuckDuckGo to replace Google as the default search engine for the private mode on Apple’s Safari browser, according to a report in Bloomberg News. The details of those talks were reportedly revealed late Wednesday (October 4) in transcripts unsealed by the judge overseeing the US government’s antitrust trial against Google. US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that he would unseal the testimony of DuckDuckGo Chief Executive Officer Gabriel Weinberg and Apple executive John Giannandrea, both of whom testified in the Washington trial in closed sessions.
During his testimony, DuckDuckGo CEO Weinberg said that DuckDuckGo had about 20 meetings and phone calls with Apple executives, including the head of Safari, in 2018 and 2019. These meetings discussed DuckDuckGo becoming the default search engine for private browsing mode. In private mode, Safari doesn’t track websites that a user visits or keep a history of what a person has accessed.
“We were talking about it, I thought they would launch it,” Weinberg said. “Multiple times we’ve gotten integrations all the way through the finish line. Really, almost everything we’ve pitched except for search,” he added. Incidentally, Apple has integrated several of DuckDuckGo’s other privacy technologies into Safari.
Why Apple exec said switching to DuckDuckGo not a great idea
However, DuckDuckGo CEO’s testimony is not exactly in line with that of Apple exec Giannandrea’s. Giannandrea joined Apple as the head of search in 2018. In his testimony, Giannandrea said that to his knowledge Apple hadn’t considered switching to DuckDuckGo. In a February 2019 email to other Apple executives, Giannandrea said that it was “probably a bad idea” to switch to DuckDuckGo for private browsing in Safari.
“The motivating factor for setting DuckDuckGo as the default for private browsing was an assumption” that it would be more private, Giannandrea said. However, as DuckDuckGo relies on Bing for its search information, it also likely provides Microsoft some user information, he said. This, he said, led him to believe that DuckDuckGo’s “marketing about privacy is somewhat incongruent with the details.”
If Apple seriously wanted to switch to DuckDuckGo, “I would probably insist on doing a lot more due diligence with DuckDuckGo,” he added.
During his testimony, DuckDuckGo CEO Weinberg said that DuckDuckGo had about 20 meetings and phone calls with Apple executives, including the head of Safari, in 2018 and 2019. These meetings discussed DuckDuckGo becoming the default search engine for private browsing mode. In private mode, Safari doesn’t track websites that a user visits or keep a history of what a person has accessed.
“We were talking about it, I thought they would launch it,” Weinberg said. “Multiple times we’ve gotten integrations all the way through the finish line. Really, almost everything we’ve pitched except for search,” he added. Incidentally, Apple has integrated several of DuckDuckGo’s other privacy technologies into Safari.
Why Apple exec said switching to DuckDuckGo not a great idea
However, DuckDuckGo CEO’s testimony is not exactly in line with that of Apple exec Giannandrea’s. Giannandrea joined Apple as the head of search in 2018. In his testimony, Giannandrea said that to his knowledge Apple hadn’t considered switching to DuckDuckGo. In a February 2019 email to other Apple executives, Giannandrea said that it was “probably a bad idea” to switch to DuckDuckGo for private browsing in Safari.
“The motivating factor for setting DuckDuckGo as the default for private browsing was an assumption” that it would be more private, Giannandrea said. However, as DuckDuckGo relies on Bing for its search information, it also likely provides Microsoft some user information, he said. This, he said, led him to believe that DuckDuckGo’s “marketing about privacy is somewhat incongruent with the details.”
If Apple seriously wanted to switch to DuckDuckGo, “I would probably insist on doing a lot more due diligence with DuckDuckGo,” he added.
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