I just did a privacy inspection test using blacklight and I was surprised to find that Bitwarden failed blacklight test completely. In fact, the astonishing part is it not just failed but I’m lost at looking at the number of ad trackers and third-party cookies are on this site. I’m disheartened to know this but to top it all, Bitwarden is not using open source analytics and instead using google analytics.
My main concern is, I love Bitwarden and I trust it very much and so I believe that a million more will share similar opinion about Bitwarden like me but having 7 or less ad trackers is itself not a good sign and here I see 20 trackers and also having 3 or less third-party cookies is not good either and here we have 30 third-party cookies
I mean, why?? I didn’t expect Bitwarden to perform this poorly in a privacy test when Bitwarden is one of the most trusted and preferred one that too dealing with password management.
This must be fixed ASAP for the greater good. This is my humble opinion and I’m sure the Bitwarden community also will agree with me on this.
For reference, please find the screenshot taken from the test attached for details.
I use Brave but most importantly, I use private DNS which blocks all trackers & third party cookies. But, for overall privacy & complete trust, Bitwarden should not use these number of extensive trackers & cookies… Afterall, it is one of the most trusted and used password managers. I really wish that Bitwarden team takes notice of this post and do something about it to make Bitwarden shine like it should be in reality.
The Vault login page is the most important thing, so that is great news!
You can also scroll down to the bottom of the main page and click Cookie Settings to set cookies to whatever you want.
I don’t really see it as much of a problem especially if advertising tracking is what provides the revenue to offer a free version or if it helps keep the price of paid version low.
Has anybody checked the account registration page? I assume that one is clean as well, but if not, that should be remedied with high priority.
With the above exceptions, I don’t begrudge Bitwarden the use of trackers and third-party cookies to further their business purposes, as much as I disdain these practices. However, I agree that it would be preferable (and a better look for Bitwarden) if they used open-source analytics instead of Google analytics.
I don’t know where that number is coming from, but Bitwarden is definitely not using this many trackers on its website. What I can see when I checked with both Firefox and Brave is that there are only two trackers used; Google analytics and googletagmanager.
However, I agree that these trackers should be removed or changed to more privacy-respecting alternatives such as Matomo, Plausible, Fathom, or Simple Analytics.
Hi,
Bitwarden is open source, yes. It is not asking you to give your kidneys to have access to all features too. And it takea security seriously.
But, it still a business. It is not a caritative organization. So, there’s a point where monetization will also be a goal. I don’t see any problems with the fact of using trackers or even adds. As long as it doesn’t put security at risk.
My only concern about this, is that it can potentially increase to a point where it could become unsafe if Bitwarden change its goals somedays by being bought by another entity or by becoming ruled by shareholders.
By now, I’m totally fine with that. If your goal is to have something as Keepas and such, go there. They may offer what you want.
To me, all is a question of balance. If Bitwarden continues to evolve like it has until now, I’ll probably use it for another long time.
Thank god!!! 
