Does DuckDuckGo Track you?

No, never at all! In recent times, privacy concerns have wreaked mini havoc on data theft and data selling, and it is for all the right reasons! DuckDuckGo understands this tryst and raises the bar of trust online by disentitling itself from web tracking of personal information or data of the user. DuckDuckGo provides complete transparency to its privacy policies and reassures its users that they are trying their best to make the internet ‘less creepy’ and observe data protection strictly. So, how safe is DuckDuckGo really? Does DuckDuckGo track you and can such a question be entirely knocked off?

There is much more awareness and agility among people about exercising and recognizing their right to information about the usage and storage of the data that they provide to browsers and websites. Cookies, beacons, trackers and other forms of data analytics are used to remember or store the information or data entered in search or through search histories to cater to the user’s preferences and overall experience. It is only right for users to question how safe is DuckDuckGo, but it lies undisputedly that the primary factor that sets DuckDuckGo apart from its web browser contemporaries is the quality of privacy offered by the search engine, the data security it provides and the transparency of privacy policies that it has to offer.

What is DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo is a multilingual search engine founded by Gabriel Weinberg, which lets the users exercise full control over their data and make no trade-offs of the same. In 2010, amidst the NSA revelations, DuckDuckGo started leveraging the privacy card to set itself apart from its rivals, to build trust online for questions like ‘does DuckDuckGo track you?’ or ‘how secure is DuckDuckGo?’

A user’s age, gender, orientation (among other identity details which you may or may not wish to publicise), ethnicity, routines, preferences, activities, hobbies, and habits may all be deduced from the location history, web search history, browsing history, and other data that trackers, or permitted beacons or cookies can gather for a browser. This data is then auctioned off by the search engine to the highest bidder companies that create a detailed profile about every user.

Does DuckDuckGo track you? No. Since the beginning and through every major milestone, DuckDuckGo has been available to users for free and their revenue, income and profits have all been sustained for about a decade through private search adverts. One wouldn’t see as many adverts based on their previous searches and the results too, aren’t based or prioritised based on search history, likes and dislikes (inferred from the data and information garnered), and most importantly and specifically, do not allow personalised, targeted or tailored advertising.

One’s private details and personally identifiable information become the source of income for firms like Google, Facebook and others. “We did it for the Internet anarchists, people that hang out on Reddit and Hacker News”, Fred Wilson of DuckDuckGo proudly claims. Well then, how safe is DuckDuckGo you ask? Pretty safe, so far so good.

How does DuckduckGo work?

As more people were convinced that DuckDuckGo offered the data protection it promised, the question shifted from ‘how safe is DuckDuckGo’ to ‘how does DuckDuckGo work’? Through seamless browsing freedom and no hidden straw in their business, in an era of unscrupulous data theft, breaches, intrusions, and scandals, DuckDuckGo (a company of only 14 years) is already in a good position to cater to the growing and rather rightful need for privacy of internet consumers. It is a testament that a website does not need to track one’s data to make money for itself. One can also thus, avoid the media bubble of altered results through implemented search filters on DuckDuckGo since there is no search history.

How safe is DuckDuckGo?

Since Microsoft and DuckDuckGo collaborate to advertise on the search engine, the latter handles the former’s tracking scripts through 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection, which stops third-party websites from loading recognized tracking scripts from Facebook, Google, and other companies. Almost all other widely used browsers fail to come with online tracking protection by default. 

If the user still has questions as to how secure DuckDuckGo is after all, then it can be noted that the website has made the public tracker protection list accessible for everyone to see what DuckDuckGo is blocking. Users can also address any issues relating to the same, and alert the Support Team. In its applications and extensions, DuckDuckGo constantly and ardently updates the Privacy Dashboard to display additional information about requests from third parties.

Users who question ‘how does DuckDuckGo work’, are appalled when they’re acquainted with the easy solutions and alternatives provided by them. DuckDuckGo strives extra hard to improve the quality, awareness, and use of technology and restore the confidence of users online, in the services offered and provide everyone with accessible privacy protection.

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