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DuckDuckGo browser beta for Windows bakes in a lot of privacy tools
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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Technology
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I've been doing a lot of reading about DDG since this dropped and ad blocking, a major privacy factor, was not included, and simply, I don't trust DDG anymore. If they were willing to disregard user privacy once, chances are they'll do it again. Hell, I'd bet they already are.
I think Duck Duck Go has been doomed to be subservient to Microsoft's whims ever since Google blocked them from aggregating search results from Google's index. Now the only way to run a private search engine is to use a private index like Xng or Metager. Of those, I'd rexommens Xng
I've had a private SearXNG instance for about a year. Never going back, if you want no ads and to not be tracked by your searches it's the way to go. I host it on a cloud server to further remove myself from being tracked via IP. It's pretty easy to spin one up and I highly recommend it.
Here's what my page looks like when I search
But is a private instance really that private? Because all your searches must be bundled together and perhaps some of those searches include personal data. I am asking as it is something I have genuinely thought about for some time
Every time it makes a query to one of the selected search engines it does it as a "new user" so there's no history for it to track.
edit: that's also why I host it on a cloud server, just to add that extra layer. Not to say someone determined couldn't figure out who I am but it stops the passive layers of trying to track.
Your server might query search engines with a clean slate, but the search engine has its own history for your cloud server's IP address. Cookies aren't the only thing big tech use to track users.
or do you use multiple IP addresses?
I have it set to dynamic IP so it changes