It’s no secret that tech giants can track your online behaviour without your knowledge. For example, when you search the web for a particular product, you see similar product recommendations on your social media feeds, and on other websites. Security breaches and data sharing are also making headlines these days, and this has raised the importance of protecting our privacy more than ever. DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that can limit your online footprint. It launched in 2008, but has recently come into the limelight due to growing privacy concerns. The search engine is expanding quickly, and it can be a great alternative to Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Let’s look at how DuckDuckGo can improve your privacy.
What is DuckDuckGo?
DuckDuckGo is a great search engine for privacy-concerned users. It is free, and you can start using it at duckduckgo.com. All popular web browsers let you set DuckDuckGo as the default search engine. DuckDuckGo even has an Android and iOS web browser. The browser looks for trackers, and it even scans and ranks sites’ privacy policies. The browser extensions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox also do a similar job so users can take advantage of DuckDuckGo’s solid privacy controls even on their desktop browsers.
How does DuckDuckGo protect your privacy?
Google has a profile of your search history and activities across various Google platforms. If you had no clue about Google Activity, you should check it by visiting https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity. Google says keeping track of a user’s data helps them to deliver more personalised search results. Google can also remember your search history, and it can tie it to your browser cookies even when you are not signed in. You can prevent this by surfing in the Incognito or Private Mode. However, it doesn’t stop websites from collecting your information, such as your searches on a search engine.
Most websites today use Google Analytics that provide detailed information about visitors to web site owners. Google can also know what videos you watch on YouTube, and even about your daily commuting routes through Google Maps. All this data across various platforms helps Google to show users more personalised advertisements.
DuckDuckGo aims to be the exact opposite of Google. It doesn’t remember your search history and DuckDuckGo say that they don’t even record the IP address associated with a search in its server logs. The search engine doesn’t operate like Google’s account-based system, and it never ties your search history to your browser cookie. DuckDuckGo claims their search results are unbiased as it does not collect any information about you.
Is DuckDuckGo advertisement free?
DuckDuckGo is a free-to-use search engine, but it does show you some advertisements to fit the bill. However, these advertisements aren’t personalised like Google, and they are based on search keywords and not on your personal profile or search history. For example, if you search for a leather wallet on DuckDuckGo, you will see ads for the product only in the search results. You won’t see product-related ads on websites you visit or any other app you use. DuckDuckGo says they don’t even know exactly how many users it has as they don’t track their users.
Is DuckDuckGo better than Google?
DuckDuckGo says it brings search results to users from over four hundred sources. Their search results also include traditional links sourced from multiple partners, but most commonly from Bing and none from Google. The company says they never share any private information with their partners. They redirect your search request to Bing and other partners while ensuring those partners don’t see your IP address or know anything about you.
Whether DuckDuckGo is better than Google depends on what you prefer – privacy or personalisation. Since DuckDuckGo doesn’t collect your data, you might have to be more specific in your DuckDuckGo searches to find exactly what you’re looking. The best way to find out how DuckDuckGo works, is to try it. Switch your default search engine to DuckDuckGo and see if you’re satisfied with the results. If not, you can switch back to your preferred search engine.
DuckDuckGo says they continue to partner with more and more sources to provide the best search results. Privacy isn’t limited to just web sites and search engines, messaging apps aren’t much better. Check out our article on secure messaging apps and for to keep updated on the latest tech, apps and security updates, keep following us on www.reliancedigital.in.
