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Contents8
  1. Consumer impact summary
  2. User privacy
  3. Incidents
  4. Censorship in China
  5. Child pornography
  6. Bing Wallpaper app malware (2024)
  7. See also
  8. References

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Bing
Basic Information
Release Year 3 June 2009
Product Type Search Engine
In Production Yes
Official Website https://bing.com/


Microsoft Bing (also known simply as Bing) is a search engine owned and operated by Microsoft, and developed by Microsoft AI.

Consumer impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

  • User freedom
  • User privacy
  • Business model
  • Market control

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.


User privacy

In 2022, France imposed a €60 million fine on Microsoft for privacy law violations using Bing cookies that prevented users from rejecting those cookies.[1][2][3]

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents related to this product. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Bing category.

Censorship in China

Microsoft has been criticized for censoring Bing search results for queries made in simplified Chinese characters, which are used in mainland China. This is done to comply with the censorship requirements of the government in China.[4] Microsoft has not indicated a willingness to stop censoring search results in simplified Chinese characters in the wake of Google's decision to do so.[5] All simplified Chinese searches in Bing are censored regardless of the user's country.[4][6] The English-language search results of Bing in China has been skewed to show more content from state-run media like Xinhua News Agency and China Daily.[7] On 23 January 2019, Bing was blocked in China.[8] According to a source quoted by The Financial Times, the order was from the Chinese government to block Bing for "illegal content".[9] On 24 January, Bing was accessible again in China.[10]

Around 4 June 2021, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Bing blocked image and video search results for the English term "Tank Man" in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, and other countries. Microsoft responded that it was due to "accidental human error."[11][12] According to an investigation by Bloomberg, the full explanation was that Microsoft accidentally applied its Chinese blacklist globally.[13]

In December 2021, it was required by a "relevant government agency" to suspend its auto-suggest function in China for thirty days.[14] The search engine became partially unavailable in mainland China from 16 December until its resumption on 18 December 2021.[15][16] According to the company, a government agency in March 2022 required that it suspend auto-suggest function in China for seven days; Bing did not specify the reason.[17] In May 2022, a report released by the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto found that Bing's auto-suggestion system censored the names of Chinese Communist Party leaders, dissidents, and other persons considered politically sensitive in China in both Chinese and English, not only in China but also in the United States of America and Canada.[18][19]

In April 2023, Citizen Lab reported that Bing was more censorious in China than native Chinese search engines.[20][21]

Child pornography

A study released in 2019 of Bing Image search showed that it both freely offered up images that had been tagged as illegal child pornography in national databases, as well as automatically suggesting via its auto-completion feature queries related to child pornography. This easy accessibility was considered particularly surprising since Microsoft pioneered PhotoDNA, the main technology used for tracking images reported as originating from child pornography.[22] Additionally, some arrested child pornographers reported using Bing as their main search engine for new content.[23] Microsoft vowed to fix the problem and assign additional staff to combat the issue after the report was released.

Bing Wallpaper app malware (2024)

In 2024, malware was found in the official Bing Wallpaper app that tries to change the users' browser settings in order to set the default web browser to Microsoft Edge. It has also been found stealing Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox cookies.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ guenni (24 Dec 2022). "France fines Microsoft 60 million euros over Bing cookies". Born's Tech and Windows World. Archived from the original on 24 Dec 2022. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  2. ↑ "France fines Microsoft €60m for imposing advertising cookies". Radio France Internationale. 22 Dec 2022. Archived from the original on 24 Dec 2022. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  3. ↑ Xiao, Menghan (23 Dec 2022). "Microsoft fined $64 million by France over cookies used in Bing searches". SC Media. Archived from the original on 24 Dec 2022. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kristof, Nicholas (20 Nov 2009). "Boycott Microsoft Bing". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 Nov 2009. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  5. ↑ Kobie, Nicole (23 Mar 2010). "Activists applaud Google's censorship move, China grumbles". IT PRO. Archived from the original on 28 Oct 2011. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  6. ↑ G.E. (12 Feb 2014). "Bing's Chinese enigma". The Economist. Archived from the original on 7 Jan 2018. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  7. ↑ Liu, Charles (17 May 2016). "Bing Goes Full-on Censorship in English Search Results Within China". The Nanfang. Archived from the original on 7 Jan 2018. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  8. ↑ "China blocks Microsoft's Bing search engine". The Guardian. 24 Jan 2019. Archived from the original on 8 Dec 2019. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  9. ↑ Yang, Yuan (24 Jan 2019). "China blocks Bing access in curb on last foreign search engine". The Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 Dec 2022. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  10. ↑ Lanxon, Nate (24 Jan 2019). "Microsoft's Bing accessible again in China after hours of outages". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 25 Jan 2019. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  11. ↑ Cox, Joseph (4 Jun 2021). "Bing Censors Image Search for 'Tank Man' Even in US". Vice. Archived from the original on 5 Jun 2021. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  12. ↑ Menn, Joseph; Dave, Paresh (5 Jun 2021). "Microsoft says error led to no matching Bing images for Tiananmen 'tank man'". Reuters. Archived from the original on 5 Jul 2021. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  13. ↑ Gallagher, Ryan (7 Mar 2024). "How Microsoft's Bing Helps Maintain Beijing's Great Firewall". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 24 Mar 2024. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  14. ↑ "Microsoft's Bing suspends auto suggest function in China at government's behest". Reuters. 17 Dec 2017. Archived from the original on 17 Dec 2021. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  15. ↑ Lin, Liza (17 Dec 2021). "Microsoft's Bing Halts Autofill Feature in China, Citing Local Laws". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 17 Dec 2021. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  16. ↑ "微软 Bing（必应）已可正常访问" [Microsoft Bing is now accessible.]. IT Home (in 中文). 18 Dec 2021. Archived from the original on 19 Dec 2021. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  17. ↑ "China requires Microsoft's Bing to suspend auto-suggest feature". Reuters. 21 Mar 2022. Archived from the original on 22 Mar 2022. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  18. ↑ Knockel, Jeffrey; Ruan, Lotus (19 May 2022). "Bada Bing, Bada Boom: Microsoft Bing's Chinese Political Censorship of Autosuggestions in North America". The Citizen Lab. Archived from the original on 19 May 2022. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  19. ↑ Tilley, Aaron (19 May 2022). "Microsoft Is Censoring Searches in U.S. for Politically Sensitive Chinese Names, Researchers Say". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  20. ↑ Myers, Steven Lee (26 Apr 2023). "China's Search Engines Have More Than 66,000 Rules Controlling Content, Report Says". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 Apr 2023. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  21. ↑ Chiu, Joanna (27 Jun 2024). "Microsoft Bing's censorship in China is even "more extreme" than Chinese companies'". Rest of World. Archived from the original on 27 Jun 2024. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  22. ↑ Constine, Josh (10 Jan 2019). "Microsoft Bing not only shows child sexual abuse, it suggests it". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 20 Feb 2023. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  23. ↑ Keller, Michael H.; Dance, Gabriel J. X. (9 Nov 2019). "Child Abusers Run Rampant as Tech Companies Look the Other Way". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 Dec 2019. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
  24. ↑ Maruccia, Alfonso (21 Nov 2024). "The official "Bing Wallpaper app" does some nasty, malware-like things to Windows". Techspot. Archived from the original on 30 Dec 2025. Retrieved 7 Jun 2026.
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