As assessed from Microsoft's own privacy documentation, Bing operates under Microsoft Corporation's unified Privacy Statement, which discloses collection of search queries, voice, text, and image data, and the use of that data—together with browsing and location signals—for interest-based advertising across Microsoft and third-party sites. The policy discloses sharing of data with third-party advertising companies and ad partners such as LinkedIn and Xandr, and in December 2022 France's CNIL fined Microsoft €60 million ($64 million) after finding that bing.com deposited advertising cookies on users' devices without adequately easy consent mechanisms. Microsoft Corporation itself is a publicly traded, SEC-reporting company, giving the corporate structure behind Bing a relatively high degree of public traceability compared to the sharing and tracking practices disclosed for the product.
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Microsoft's product privacy page discloses that Bing uses an individual user's search history, together with history aggregated from other users, to improve search results.
As assessed by PrivacySpy on 2021-05-26 (see PrivacySpy's rubric entry for this product for the per-claim citation): Does the service collect personal data from third parties? — Yes.
The Microsoft Privacy Statement discloses that Bing and other Microsoft products collect search queries and commands, voice data (voice clips), text/inking/typing data, and images and related metadata.
Microsoft Corporation, Bing's parent company, is a publicly traded company whose common stock is listed on the NASDAQ National Market System and which files annual Form 10-K reports with the U.S. SEC disclosing its corporate structure and securities.
As assessed by PrivacySpy on 2021-05-26 (see PrivacySpy's rubric entry for this product for the per-claim citation): Does the policy outline the service's general security practices? — Somewhat.
Bing is operated under Microsoft's single corporate Privacy Statement, which discloses that personal data may also be shared with 'Microsoft-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries,' indicating the corporate family involved in data handling is named rather than obscured.
Microsoft's privacy FAQ discloses that data such as location, Bing search activity, pages viewed on Microsoft or advertiser sites, and demographics are used to select which ads are shown to users.
An earlier version of Microsoft's Privacy Statement disclosed that Microsoft partners with third-party advertising companies to provide advertising services and allows other third-party ad companies to display advertisements on Microsoft sites, including sharing reports about ad data with advertisers.
As assessed by PrivacySpy on 2021-05-26 (see PrivacySpy's rubric entry for this product for the per-claim citation): Does the policy allow personally-targeted or behavioral marketing? — Yes, but you may opt-out.
The Microsoft Privacy Statement discloses that, as defined under certain U.S. state data privacy laws, Microsoft's 'sharing' of personal data includes providing it to third parties for personalized advertising purposes.
On December 22, 2022, France's CNIL announced a €60 million ($64 million) fine against Microsoft over Bing's advertising cookie practices, finding the search engine had not made it as easy to refuse cookies as to accept them.
Coverage of the CNIL decision reports that the investigation into Bing's cookie practices ran from September 2020 to May 2021, that Microsoft did not add a 'Decline All' cookie button until March 29, 2022, and that the regulator ordered Microsoft to obtain valid consent within three months or face a further penalty of €60,000 per day.
France's CNIL found that when users visited Bing, advertising cookies were deposited on their devices without their consent, and that the site lacked a mechanism to reject cookies as easily as accepting them.
Microsoft's privacy statement discloses that, in addition to cookies Microsoft itself sets, it uses cookies from Microsoft affiliates and third-party partners including LinkedIn and Xandr for purposes such as advertising and load balancing.