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Tag: DuckDuckGo

  • DuckDuckGPT Combines DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT

    DuckDuckGPT Combines DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT

    Microsoft may be working to bring ChatGPT-based tech to Bing, but one enterprising developer has already the AI to DuckDuckGo.

    DuckDuckGo is the privacy-focused search engine that has steadily been growing in popularity as individuals become more concerned with protecting their online privacy. Developer Adam Lui has created an extension that adds ChatGPT results to the DuckDuckGo sidebar.

    Lui details the necessary steps to install the script on his GitHub page:

    1. Install Tampermonkey (Chrome, Firefox) or Violentmonkey (Chrome, Firefox).
    2. Install DuckDuckGPT.
    3. Visit DuckDuckGo.com and perform a search. The ChatGPT results should show up on the right.

    Microsoft is incorporating an updated and improved version of the tech behind ChatGPT in Bing, but DuckDuckGPT is a nice alternative that’s available right now.

  • DuckDuckGo Android App Now Offers Some of the Best Privacy Protection

    DuckDuckGo Android App Now Offers Some of the Best Privacy Protection

    DuckDuckGo (DDG) has opened its App Tracking Protection beta to all Android users, providing some of the most capable privacy protection.

    App Tracking Protection acts as a local VPN on an Android device. Rather than creating a network connection, like a typical VPN, the feature acts as a VPN only in the sense that it forces all apps to route their network requests through it. This allows App Tracking Protection to block tracking attempts, even giving users a report of how many times an app has tried tracking them.

    DDG is quick to point out, however, that no data is sent to the company:

    App Tracking Protection uses a local “VPN connection,” which means that it works its magic right on your smartphone and without sending app data to DuckDuckGo or other remote servers. That is, App Tracking Protection does not route your app data through external companies (including ours).

    The need for App Tracking Protection quickly becomes apparent when considering the sheer volume of tracking users are subjected to:

    The average Android user has 35 apps on their phone. Through our testing, we’ve found that a phone with 35 apps can experience between 1,000-2,000 tracking attempts every day and contact 70+ different tracking companies.

    At WPN, we have been using DDG’s App Tracking Protection since it was in closed beta and have been consistently impressed with the results. In fact, this writer will not run an Android-based phone without App Tracking Protection installed.

    Many, including DDG, will compare App Tracking Protection to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) iOS feature. In some ways, however, DDG’s solution is superior. Some of the largest app makers, and some of the most egregious privacy abusers, have been bypassing ATT. It seems that Apple may even be turning a blind eye to their activity because of how big they are.

    In contrast, DDG’s solution gives the users true control. There are some apps for which App Tracking Protection is disabled by default since there are known issues. However, the user has the option to enable protection for those apps anyway and deal with any compatibility issues.

    In short, we can’t recommend App Tracking Protection enough. ALL Android users should immediately download the DuckDuckGo app and enable the feature in Settings.

  • DuckDuckGo’s macOS Web Browser Now in Open Beta

    DuckDuckGo’s macOS Web Browser Now in Open Beta

    DuckDuckGo for Mac has entered public beta, available to anyone who wants a more private web browsing experience.

    DuckDuckGo has long provided a search app and browser on mobile platforms and browser extensions on the desktop. The company as been working to expand its offerings, building a full-fledged web browser for macOS and Windows. The company first announced its plans in December 2021, followed by an invite-only beta.

    The company’s web browser is now available in open beta for macOS, bringing new features and the ability to import settings and data from other browsers.

    Forget going “incognito” with other browsers that don’t actually deliver substantive web tracking protection; you deserve privacy all the time, with built-in protections that make the Internet less creepy and less cluttered. Equipped with new and improved features for everyday use, DuckDuckGo for Mac is here to clean up the web as you browse. (And yes, you can import all your passwords and bookmarks from other browsers and password managers – so switching is quick and easy!)‌‌‌‌

    DuckDuckGo says its browser uses 60% less data than Chrome. It also includes features designed to reduce ads and tracking. For example, its new Duck Player feature limits tracking and ads while watching YouTube videos and implements YouTube’s strictest privacy settings.

    “We built DuckDuckGo for Mac with privacy, security, and simplicity in mind,” reads the blog post. “Our default privacy settings are stronger than what most other browsers offer, and you don’t need to sift through obscure menus to turn them on. DuckDuckGo for Mac is not a “fork” of Chromium, or any other browser code. All the app code – tab and bookmark management, our new tab page, our password manager, etc. – is written by our own engineers. For rendering, it uses a public macOS API, making it super compatible with Mac devices. DuckDuckGo believes in open sourcing our apps and extensions whenever possible, and we plan to do so for DuckDuckGo for Mac before it moves out of beta.‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌”

    The announcement is good news for privacy-conscious users from a company that is one of the few working to protect users’ privacy online. Windows users will have to wait a bit longer, but a Windows version is on its way in the coming months.

  • TikTok Under Fire for Potential Keylogging, Some Say Concern Is Overblown

    TikTok Under Fire for Potential Keylogging, Some Say Concern Is Overblown

    A security researcher has called out TikTok for inserting code in its in-app browser that could be used to log keystrokes, but not everyone is convinced.

    TikTok is frequently in the news over concerns with its handling of user data and how much influence — and access to that data — Beijing has. In the latest round of concerns, security researcher Felix Krause has highlighted the dangers of apps that have their own in-app web browsers, including TikTok.

    According to Krause, TikTok’s in-app browser injects JavaScript into third-party websites when a user visits them from within the app. The code can be used for a variety of purposes, including logging keystrokes and collecting sensitive information.

    Krause admits that he can’t say for sure how TikTok is using the JavaScript code it’s inserting:

    We can’t know what TikTok uses the subscription for, but from a technical perspective, this is the equivalent of installing a keylogger on third party websites.

    Read more: Oracle Begins Audit of TikTok’s Algorithms for Beijing’s Influence

    Zach Edwards ― the security researcher that discovered some Microsoft trackers were not blocked by DuckDuckGo before the latter fixed the issue — pointed out the dangers of conflating what could happen with what is happening.

    TikTok sent the following statement to Motherboard, strongly denying Krause’s implication:

    The report’s conclusions about TikTok are incorrect and misleading. The researcher specifically says the JavaScript code does not mean our app is doing anything malicious, and admits they have no way to know what kind of data our in-app browser collects. Contrary to the report’s claims, we do not collect keystroke or text inputs through this code, which is solely used for debugging, troubleshooting, and performance monitoring.

    Only time will tell if TikTok is collecting the data people type in the in-app browser, although doing so would likely be the smoking gun regulators would need to crack down on the service. Given how high the stakes are and the lack of any evidence, it seems unlikely that TikTok is guilty of this particular offense.

    At the same time, TikTok remains one of the most controversial apps or services available, with more than its fair share of privacy issues. That alone will make it hard for some people to believe the company isn’t guilty.

  • DuckDuckGo Adds More Microsoft Tracking Protection, Now Better Than Ever

    DuckDuckGo Adds More Microsoft Tracking Protection, Now Better Than Ever

    DuckDuckGo has added additional protection against Microsoft tracking, addressing concerns that were raised in May.

    DuckDuckGo is one of the leading privacy-oriented companies, providing a suite of apps and services that help users protect their privacy online. Despite blocking the vast majority of Microsoft trackers, researchers discovered in May that a very small percentage of Microsoft’s trackers were not blocked under some circumstances.

    DuckDuckGo has been working hard to address the issue and will be rolling out additional protections over the next week to block even more Microsoft trackers, specifically those loaded by third-party websites.

    CEO Gabriel Weinberg outlined the steps the company is taking:

    Over the next week, we will expand the third-party tracking scripts we block from loading on websites to include scripts from Microsoft in our browsing apps (iOS and Android) and our browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and Opera), with beta apps to follow in the coming month. This expands our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection, which blocks identified tracking scripts from Facebook, Google, and other companies from loading on third-party websites, to now include third-party Microsoft tracking scripts. This web tracking protection is not offered by most other popular browsers by default and sits on top of many other DuckDuckGo protections.

    Interestingly, because of the method used to load Microsoft trackers, the number of additional ads being blocked is very small.

    “Prior to this update, we were already blocking most MSFT scripts from loading and further restricting Microsoft tracking through our other web tracking protections, like blocking Microsoft’s third-party cookies in our browsers,” a company spokesperson told WPN. “Often websites use tag managers to load multiple other scripts, the most popular one is Google Tag manager. Since most Microsoft scripts load through tag managers, those requests were already being blocked by 3rd Party Tracker Loading Protection before this update. In fact, we ran a test to see how much more blocking is happening as a result of this new update and based on the top 1,000 websites we found the increase was only 0.25%.”

    The company’s findings illustrate how effectively it was already blocking Microsoft’s trackers and how overblown the initial concerns were.

    Even so, with these latest rounds of improvements, DuckDuckGo has cemented its reputation, offering better out-of-the-box privacy than Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and others.

  • Researcher Discovers DuckDuckGo Allows Some Microsoft Trackers

    Researcher Discovers DuckDuckGo Allows Some Microsoft Trackers

    DuckDuckGo is receiving criticism for the terms of a deal with Microsoft that has resulted in some Microsoft trackers being whitelisted.

    DDG has made a name for itself as a privacy-first company, building a search engine, browser extensions, and web browsers around the premise of protecting user privacy. The company is one of the few that truly makes an effort to protect user privacy and data. Unfortunately, its terms with Microsoft have caused some concern.

    Unlike Google, Bing, or Brave, DDG gets its search results from other engines, with the bulk of them coming from Bing. The company has long claimed to strip out trackers from the search results it provides, although clicking an ad from Microsoft in the search results is handled differently. DDG has never made a secret of the fact that clicking on those ads sends a user’s IP address to Microsoft, since the user is leaving DDG and entering Microsoft’s space.

    Unfortunately, DDG had not been able to disclose the terms of the deal that whitelisted some Microsoft trackers, due to a confidentiality clause in the agreement between the two companies. Security researcher Zach Edwards first made the discovery and tweeted about it:

    Sometimes you find something so disturbing during an audit, you’ve gotta check/recheck because you assume that *something* must be broken in the test. But I’m confident now. The new @DuckDuckGo browsers for iOS/Android don’t block Microsoft data flows, for LinkedIn or Bing.

    — Zach Edwards (@thezedwards), May 23, 2022

    Ironically, DDG doesn’t even block Microsoft’s data trackers on Workplace.com, a Facebook-owned domain that it brags about blocking Facebook’s trackers on.

    Needless to say, DDG CEO Gabriel Weinberg is doing his best to put out the fire:

    We’ve been working tirelessly behind the scenes to change these requirements, though our syndication agreement also has a confidentially provision that prevents disclosing details. Again, we expect to have an update soon that will include more third-party Microsoft protection.

    — Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg), May 23, 2022

    Of course, Weinberg might not have to put out so big a fire if his company had disclosed this issue first, rather than waiting until it was uncovered by a security researcher.

    In the meantime, Shivan Kaul Sahib, Privacy Engineer for Brave, highlighted the inherent conflict of interest for a company that relies on the good graces of another company making money off of ad trackers.

    This is shocking. DuckDuckGo has a search deal with Microsoft which prevents them from blocking MS trackers. And they can’t talk about it! This is why privacy products that are beholden to giant corporations can never deliver true privacy; the business model just doesn’t work.

    — Shivan Kaul Sahib (@shivan_kaul), May 23, 2022

    Speaking of Brave, the company is one of the only ones on the market that provides a truly independent alternative to Google and Bing. The company bought Tailcat, allowing it to build its own search engine that relies on a completely independent web index. This keeps Brave from being beholden to Microsoft, Google, or any other company.

    With a privacy-focused browser and a truly independent search engine, Brave is quickly establishing itself as a much better privacy solution than DDG.

    In the meantime, here is a statement from Weinberg that was provided to WPN:

    “We have always been extremely careful to never promise anonymity when browsing, because that frankly isn’t possible given how quickly trackers change how they work to evade protections and the tools we currently offer. When most other browsers on the market talk about tracking protection they are usually referring to 3rd-party cookie protection and fingerprinting protection, and our browsers for iOS, Android, and our new Mac beta, impose these restrictions on third-party tracking scripts, including those from Microsoft. 

    “What we’re talking about here is an above-and-beyond protection that most browsers don’t even attempt to do — that is, blocking third-party tracking scripts before they load on 3rd party websites. Because we’re doing this where we can, users are still getting significantly more privacy protection with DuckDuckGo than they would using Safari, Firefox and other browsers. This blog post we published gets into the real benefits users enjoy from this approach, like faster load times (46% average decrease) and less data transferred (34% average decrease). Our goal has always been to provide the most privacy we can in one download, by default without any complicated settings.” 

    “I understand this is all rather confusing because it is a search syndication contract that is preventing us from doing a non-search thing. That’s because our product is a bundle of multiple privacy protections, and this is a distribution requirement imposed on us as part of the search syndication agreement that helps us privately use some Bing results to provide you with better private search results overall. While a lot of what you see on our results page privately incorporates content from other sources, including our own indexes (e.g., Wikipedia, Local listings, Sports, etc.), we source most of our traditional links and images privately from Bing (though because of other search technology our link and image results still may look different). Really only two companies (Google and Microsoft) have a high-quality global web link index (because I believe it costs upwards of a billion dollars a year to do), and so literally every other global search engine needs to bootstrap with one or both of them to provide a mainstream search product. The same is true for maps btw — only the biggest companies can similarly afford to put satellites up and send ground cars to take streetview pictures of every neighborhood.

    “Anyway, I hope this provides some helpful context. Taking a step back, I know our product is not perfect and will never be. Nothing can provide 100% protection. And we face many constraints: platform constraints (we can’t offer all protections on every platform do to limited APIs or other restrictions), limited contractual constraints (like in this case), breakage constraints (blocking some things totally breaks web experiences), and of course the evolving tracking arms race that we constantly work to keep ahead of. That’s why we have always been extremely careful to never promise anonymity when browsing outside our search engine, because that frankly isn’t possible. We’re also working on updates to our app store descriptions to make this more clear. Holistically though I believe what we offer is the best thing out there for mainstream users who want simple privacy protection without breaking things, and that is our product vision.”

    Updated 5/25/22: Edited for clarity and to add Gabriel Weinberg’s statement.

  • Privacy-Focused Tech Companies Call for Ban on ‘Surveillance-Based Advertising’

    Privacy-Focused Tech Companies Call for Ban on ‘Surveillance-Based Advertising’

    A group of tech companies with a history of protecting user privacy is calling for a ban on “surveillance-based advertising.”

    Mojeek, along with DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, StartPage, Fastmail, Proton Technologies and others have written a letter calling on the US, UK, EU and Australia to take action against the dominant form of online advertising. Mojeek is a UK-based search engine that has not tracked users since its inception, and holds the distinction of being the first privacy-oriented search engine. Similarly, the other companies on the list have a long history of protecting user privacy.

    The companies make the case in their open letter that surveillance advertising, commonly called “personalization,” is a threat to consumers, businesses and democracies. The companies also stand as examples that prove it’s possible to build a profitable business without exploiting consumers.

    We are a group of businesses who write to you today to show our support to this initiative. We represent small, medium and large businesses who all believe -and demonstrate on a daily basis -that it is possible to run profitable companies without exploiting the privacy of individuals.

    The companies emphasize they are not anti-advertising, they simply want the industry to use technologies and methods that don’t involve invading the privacy of users.

    Although we recognize that advertising is an important source of revenue for content creators and publishers online, this does not justify the massive commercial surveillance systems set up in attempts to “show the right ad to the right people”.

    Other forms of advertising technologies exist, which do not depend on spying on consumers, and alternative models can be implemented without significantly affecting revenue. On the contrary – and that we can attest to – businesses can thrive without privacy-invasive practices.

  • Brave and DuckDuckGo Push Back Against Google AMP

    Brave and DuckDuckGo Push Back Against Google AMP

    Brave and DuckDuckGo are pushing back against Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), bypassing the technology in their browsers and apps.

    AMP is a framework developed and deployed by Google under the guise of helping webpages load faster, especially for mobile devices. When a user clicks on a search result, Google essentially pre-loads the web content, optimizes it, and then presents it to the user, with no visual indication the page is being served from Google’s servers instead of the publisher’s. Both Brave and DuckDuckGo’s web browsers will now work to de-AMP web pages, serving up the publisher’s original site instead of Google’s AMP version.

    Brave outlines their approach in a blog post:

    Brave will protect users from AMP in several ways. Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether. And in cases where that is not possible, Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP/Google code from being loaded and executed.

    DuckDuckGo is taking similar measures with their web browser, as well as all of their apps and browser extensions:

    NEW: our apps & extensions now protect against Google AMP tracking. When you load or share a Google AMP page anywhere from DuckDuckGo apps (iOS/Android/Mac) or extensions (Firefox/Chrome), the original publisher’s webpage will be used in place of the Google AMP version.

    DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo), April 19, 2022

    There are a number of reasons why both companies are pushing back and adopting this approach. First and foremost, privacy is one of the biggest casualties of AMP, as Brave points out:

    AMP gives Google an even broader view of which pages people view on the Web, and how people interact with them. AMP encourages developers to more tightly integrate with Google servers and systems, and penalizes publishers with decreased search rankings and placements if they don’t, further allowing Google to track and profile users.

    AMP is also a security nightmare since users aren’t clearly informed that they are browsing a website from Google’s servers, and not from the site’s publishers. This, in turn, gives Google far more control, increasing their monopolization of the web. As Brave points out, AMP doesn’t even deliver the performance improvements Google touts.

    It’s hard not to see AMP, and its upcoming successor, as an unabashed attempt by Google to further control the future of the web. Thankfully, companies like Brave and DuckDuckGo are continuing to fight back.

  • DuckDuckGo Grew by 46% in 2021, Averaging 100 Million Daily Searches

    DuckDuckGo Grew by 46% in 2021, Averaging 100 Million Daily Searches

    DuckDuckGo is making major headway in the search market, growing by 46% in 2021 and averaging more than 100 million daily searches.

    DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that does not track or profile its users, unlike Google or Bing. The company does rely on advertising, but those ads are based solely on the keywords and content of a specific search.

    While the company’s market share pales in comparison to Google, it is solidly in fourth place, behind Google, Bing, and Yahoo. According to Bleeping Computer, DuckDuckGo saw its searches go from 23.6 billion in 2020 to 34.6 billion in 2021. That translates to a daily average in 2021 of 100 million, up from 79 million in 2020.

    Obviously, DuckDuckGo still has a long way to go before it represents any real threat to Google, but the company continues to prove that profits don’t have to come at the expense of user privacy.

  • DuckDuckGo Reveals Details About Upcoming Desktop Web Browser

    DuckDuckGo Reveals Details About Upcoming Desktop Web Browser

    DuckDuckGo has revealed details about its upcoming desktop web browser, a new entry that promises to offer significant privacy protections.

    DuckDuckGo has made a name for itself as a search engine that protects user privacy and security. The company has been branching out into application development, offering mobile apps and desktop browser plugins that further support its mission.

    The company is now working on its own desktop web browser that will further protect user privacy.

    Like we’ve done on mobile, DuckDuckGo for desktop will redefine user expectations of everyday online privacy. No complicated settings, no misleading warnings, no “levels” of privacy protection – just robust privacy protection that works by default, across search, browsing, email, and more. It’s not a “privacy browser”; it’s an everyday browsing app that respects your privacy because there’s never a bad time to stop companies from spying on your search and browsing history.

    One of the benefits of DuckDuckGo’s browser is that it will use the default rendering engine of its host platform, rather than creating yet another fork of Chrome.

    Instead of forking Chromium or anything else, we’re building our desktop app around the OS-provided rendering engines (like on mobile), allowing us to strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that’s accumulated over the years in major browsers. With our clean and simple interface combined with the beloved Fire Button from our mobile app, DuckDuckGo for desktop will be ready to become your new everyday browsing app. Compared to Chrome, the DuckDuckGo app for desktop is cleaner, way more private, and early tests have found it significantly faster too!

    DuckDuckGo’s entry into the market is an exciting development for anyone concerned with protecting their online privacy.

  • Brave Search Enters Public Beta

    Brave Search Enters Public Beta

    Brave has opened its search engine beta to the world, following an invite-only early access.

    Brave made headlines in March when the company announced it was working on its own search engine. Brave has made a name for itself as a privacy-focused company, with its namesake browser consistently winning rave reviews for protecting user privacy.

    Needless to say, the company entering the search market could result in a major shakeup of the industry, especially with Brave’s clout and reputation. What makes its entry into the market so interesting is that it purchased Tailcat, an open search engine, to serve as the basis of Brave Search. Most competitors compile results from the top, existing search engines. DuckDuckGo uses this strategy, compiling results from hundreds of sources, in addition to results from its own web crawler.

    By using its own web index, Brave Search’s results are independent of the other, Big Tech companies. This puts Brave in the unique position of having one of the only truly independent search engines on the market.

    The search engine, while still in beta, is now available to anyone who wants to use it. The company sent an email to early testers today, informing them the beta was now open to the public.

    Brave Search Email
    Brave Search Email

    As one of the early beta testers, I have been using Brave for weeks now and the results have been impressive. Compared to Bing or Google, Brave’s results are easily as comprehensive, although it sometimes offers even better prioritization of those results, in terms of relevance.

    Add in a focus on privacy that is second to none, and I plan to continue using the search engine on a regular basis, and probably as my default — and you should too if you value your privacy.

    Give Brave Search at search.brave.com.

  • DuckDuckGo Testing Email Protection Service

    DuckDuckGo Testing Email Protection Service

    DuckDuckGo is testing a new email protection feature, designed to combat email trackers.

    Many emails, up to 70% of them in fact, contain trackers that tell the sender when, where and on what device the email was opened. The data is also used to build profiles, to coordinate with other ad services, such as those on websites.

    DuckDuckGo is looking to challenge this with its new Email Protectionservice.

    We’re excited to announce the beta release of DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection. Our free email forwarding service removes email trackers and protects the privacy of your personal email address without asking you to change email services or apps.

    Users sign up for an @duck.com email address and use it as the address they give out to others. DuckDuckGo strips out any trackers from emails sent to the address, and then forward it on to the person’s main address — all without saving anything.

    The service sounds like an excellent option for privacy-conscious users, made by a company that has built its reputation on protecting user privacy.

    The service is currently in beta. Those interested can sign up via the iOS or Android DuckDuckGo app by selecting Settings > Beta Features > Email Protection > Join the Private Waitlist.

  • Microsoft Bing Not Showing Image Results for Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’

    Microsoft Bing Not Showing Image Results for Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’

    Microsoft is facing accusations of censorship as users the world over are unable to bring up pictures of the Tiananmen “tank man.”

    “Tank man” is a search term often used to bring up pictures of a man facing off against a line of tanks during the demonstrations in China’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. With it being the anniversary of that event, people are naturally turning online to look up old images.

    Microsoft, however, doesn’t appear to be showing the picture, leading some to believe it is censoring results to appease Chinese authorities. Microsoft has denied the accusation to Reuters, saying it was “due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this.”

    Interestingly, DuckDuckGo is also not showing any pictures. The privacy search engine relies on results from Bing, and is therefore impacted too.

    Google, meanwhile, is still showing applicable results.

  • EFF Partners With DuckDuckGo, Adopts Its HTTPS Dataset

    EFF Partners With DuckDuckGo, Adopts Its HTTPS Dataset

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is partnering with DuckDuckGo to include the latter’s HTTPS dataset in its HTTPS Everywhere browser extension.

    The EFF and DuckDuckGo are closely aligned in their commitment to protecting user privacy. DuckDuckGo’s privacy browser extension for the desktop, and its standalone privacy browser for iOS, rely on the company’s Smarter Encryption technology.

    Smarter Encryption upgrades a standard unencrypted (HTTP) website connection to an encrypted (HTTPS) connection where possible. Smarter Encryption is more advanced than many competing options, since DuckDuckGo crawls and re-crawls the web to keep its dataset current.

    The EFF is now adopting DuckDuckGo’s Smart Encryption dataset for use in its own HTTPS Everywhere browser extension. Like Smart Encryption, HTTPS Everywhere is designed to help upgrade insecure connections. The EFF’s solution previously used “a crowd-sourced list of encrypted HTTPS versions of websites,” a less efficient and less comprehensive solution than DuckDuckGo’s.

    “DuckDuckGo Smarter Encryption has a list of millions of HTTPS-encrypted websites, generated by continually crawling the web instead of through crowdsourcing, which will give HTTPS Everywhere users more coverage for secure browsing,” said Alexis Hancock, EFF Director of Engineering and manager of HTTPS Everywhere and Certbot web encrypting projects. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with DuckDuckGo as we see HTTPS become the default protocol on the net and contemplate HTTPS Everywhere’s future.”

    “EFFs pioneering work with the HTTPS Everywhere extension took privacy protection in a new and needed direction, seamlessly upgrading people to secure website connections,” said Gabriel Weinberg, DuckDuckGo founder and CEO. “We’re delighted that EFF has now entrusted DuckDuckGo to power HTTPS Everywhere going forward, using our next generation Smarter Encryption dataset.”

  • DuckDuckGo Calls Out Google’s Apps For Spying On Users

    DuckDuckGo Calls Out Google’s Apps For Spying On Users

    DuckDuckGo is mincing no words in calling out Google’s apps for spying on users and not respecting their privacy.

    Google drew widespread criticism for taking months to roll out updates to its iOS apps after Apple introduced privacy labels in the App Store. The new feature is designed to let users know exactly what personal information an app collects and tracks. Google has only recently updated many of its apps, after dragging its feet for months after privacy labels went live.

    DuckDuckGo is calling the company to task for what Chrome and the Google app privacy labels reveals about Google’s data collection.

    Google is already facing increased backlash for its privacy practices, including a lawsuit that claims the company continues to track people even when Chrome’s Incognito Mode is enabled.

    Users who truly value privacy should migrate away from Google’s apps sooner rather than later.

  • DuckDuckGo Hits 100 Million Daily Searches

    DuckDuckGo Hits 100 Million Daily Searches

    Privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo has crossed a major threshold, passing 100 million daily searches.

    DuckDuckGo has built its reputation on protecting user privacy and not tracking their browsing habits. While the search engine is much smaller that Google, it has been gaining users as consumers have begun to value their privacy more.

    The search engine has now reached a major milestone, passing 100 million daily searches on Monday, January 11. Since then, usage has been hovering just below that mark, ranging from 97 to 99 million.

    While DuckDuckGo has a long way to go before it’s a threat to Google, its increasing popularity should be a warning sign to Google about the value of protecting user privacy.

  • Google’s Problems Worsen: State Lawsuits May Be Coming In Weeks

    Google’s Problems Worsen: State Lawsuits May Be Coming In Weeks

    Google’s antitrust issues are on the verge of getting much worse, as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warns state lawsuits may be coming.

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in October, after an extensive investigation into the company’s business and practices. Even then, some of the veteran DOJ lawyers wanted additional time to make their case before filing, but Attorney General (AG) William Barr pushed head with the case.

    At the heart of the case is Google’s dominance of the search industry, where the company currently controls roughly 90% of the US market. This has made it difficult for other search engines, such as Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo, to compete on even terms. Google’s deals with device manufactures, such as Apple, to make their search engine the default only serve to strengthen its position and make it even harder for smaller companies to compete.

    It appears a number of states are set to file their own lawsuits. According to Bloomberg, Texas AG Paxton said state lawsuits could be filed “in the upcoming weeks and months.”

  • DuckDuckGo Adds Apple-Powered Driving and Walking Directions

    DuckDuckGo Adds Apple-Powered Driving and Walking Directions

    DuckDuckGo has announced new mapping features with driving and walking directions, powered by Apple Maps.

    DuckDuckGo is the premier privacy-oriented search engine, setting itself apart form Google and Bing. The company promises it doesn’t track users, store personal information about them or follow them around with ads as they browse the internet.

    While the company has offered map features for years, it is significantly expanding its service to include driving and walking directions. The new map service is powered by Apple’s MapKit JS framework.

    DuckDuckGo promises the mapping service will afford the same privacy its users are accustomed to with its search. The fact that it chose Apple’s map software over Google’s is likely a reflection of that focus, as Apple has worked hard to differentiate itself as a company committed to protecting user privacy.

  • DuckDuckGo Experiences Major Growth

    DuckDuckGo Experiences Major Growth

    DuckDuckGo, the privacy-first search engine, is experiencing record growth as customers become more concerned about protecting their privacy.

    According to a company tweet, the search engine touted “a record breaking August,” with some two billion searches, 4 million app/extension installs and an estimated 65 million active users. The company admits it doesn’t have an exact count as a result of the very same privacy that makes the search engine unique.

    Despite DuckDuckGo’s growth, it still has a long way to go before it’s a threat to Google. The search giant currently controls 87.3%, with Bing a distant runner-up at 7.2%. Even Yahoo only has 3.41%. DuckDuckGo brings up fourth place with 1.75%.

    Even so, as customers become more privacy-conscious, DuckDuckGo may soon start moving into third and second place.

  • DuckDuckGo Releases Tracker Radar to Expose Hidden Tracking

    DuckDuckGo Releases Tracker Radar to Expose Hidden Tracking

    DuckDuckGo is the preeminent privacy-oriented search engine and the company is taking it a step further by releasing a tool to help expose hidden tracking.

    As the company points out, a quality tracking blocker is critical to online privacy. Without one, advertisers can amass a shocking amount of detail about web users, including location history, browsing history, shopping history and more. Combining the data they collect can even give them a pretty good idea of exactly how old a user is, their ethnicity, preferences and habits.

    When the company started exploring possibilities, it was not happy with the state of current options.

    “When we set out to add tracker protection, we found that existing lists of trackers were mostly manually curated, which meant they were often stale and never comprehensive,” reads the company’s announcement. “And, even worse, those lists sometimes break websites, which hinders mainstream adoption. So, over the last couple of years we built our own data set of trackers based on a crawling process that doesn’t have these drawbacks. We call it DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar. It is automatically generated, constantly updated, and continually tested.

    “Today we’re proud to release DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar to the world, and are also open sourcing the code that generates it. This follows our recent release of our Smarter Encryption data and crawling code (that powers the upgraded website encryption component in our apps and extensions).

    “Tracker Radar contains the most common cross-site trackers and includes detailed information about their tracking behavior, including prevalence, ownership, fingerprinting behavior, cookie behavior, privacy policy, rules for specific resources (with exceptions for site breakage), and performance data.”

    Tracker Radar is included in DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Browser for iOS and Android, as well as the Privacy essentials browser extension for Safari, Firefox and Chrome on the desktop. Developers can also download Tracker Radar and include it in their own tools.

  • Verizon Launches OneSearch, A Privacy-Focused Search Engine

    Verizon Launches OneSearch, A Privacy-Focused Search Engine

    Verizon has announced the launch of OneSearch, a brand-new search engine focused on privacy, according to a press release.

    Privacy is increasingly becoming a major factor for tech companies, governments and users alike. The European Union’s Genera Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy law went into effect in 2018. As of January 1, 2020, California implemented the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPR), the most comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. The increased regulation, not to mention increasing consumer demand, has created both challenges and opportunities for tech companies.

    Verizon’s solution seems to be a search engine, powered by Bing, that caters toward privacy-conscious users. According to Verizon’s press release, “available for free today on desktop and mobile web at www.onesearch.com, OneSearch doesn’t track, store, or share personal or search data with advertisers, giving users greater control of their personal information in a search context. Businesses with an interest in security can partner with Verizon Media to integrate OneSearch into their privacy and security products, giving their customers another measure of control.”

    The search engine has additional advanced features, such as temporary link sharing. When Advanced Privacy Mode is enabled, any links to search results will expire in one hour.

    Users will still see ads when searching, but they will not be customized or based on the person’s search or browsing habits.

    “To allow for a free search engine experience, OneSearch is an ad-supported platform. Ads will be contextual, based on factors like search keywords, not cookies or browsing history. For example, if someone searches for ‘flights to Paris,’ they may see ads for travel booking sites or airlines that travel to Paris.”

    OneSearch does use some personal information. For example, a person’s IP address does provide general location information that can be used to provide location-specific results. Personal data is obfuscated and is never shared with search partners.

    While it is always nice to see tech giants embrace privacy, it’s hard to see the benefits of OneSearch over DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo has a long-standing track record of providing private search. As CNET points out, the move is also interesting coming from Verizon Media, the branch of the telecommunications company “that runs an extensive ad network with more than 70,000 web publishers and apps as customers. While the search engine aims to attract users by turning on privacy features by default, OneSearch will also let Verizon Media hone its ad-matching powers on a search engine it owns. (Verizon also owns the Yahoo search engine.)”

    It will be interesting to see what becomes of OneSearch and if it lives up to its promise of respecting people’s privacy. In the meantime, most users will probably be better off using DuckDuckGo.