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Duckduckgo - Based in US / very weak privacy laws Servers - hosted using Amazon (AWS) Bangs aren't safe. For example typing “!g kittens in basket” and hitting

Duckduckgo - Based in US / very weak privacy laws Servers - hosted using Amazon (AWS) Bangs aren't safe. For example typing “!g kittens in basket” and hitting return, drops you off on the Google website to display your results (thus logging your IP, search term and browser info immediately). DuckDuckGo is owned by Gabriel Weinberg who is is the founder, current CEO and controlling shareholder. Investors/shareholders include Union Square Ventures and several others. DuckDuckGo generates it’s income from advertising (Bing Ads) and collects affiliate revenue (Amazon, eBay). Duckduckgo and Yahoo partnership https://web.archive.org/web/20160724030640/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160724030640/ https://duck.co/help/results/yahoo-technical-implementation https://duck.co/help/results/yahoo-technical-implementation https://duck.co/blog/blog/post/311/yahoo-partnership https://duck.co/blog/blog/post/311/yahoo-partnership Duckduckgo has no audit Duckduckgo gives out a HTTP header field that identifies the address of the webpage. Both companies were asked "if you were ordered to compromise your service/customer privacy in any way would you" DuckDuckGo – Gabriel Weinberg said: “No one is preventing me from doing that.”

hardwaresofton 7y ago
As a fan of DDG (I use it daily), I had no idea there was this much risk -- I was surprised enough to find out they offloaded search to Bing a while ago (but also I don't blame them, it's probably pretty hard). Even with these hangups, I still think any near-viable option to Google should exist. [EDIT] - just realized it's only been 20 minutes (not a day) -- looking forward to DDG's response
- rvnx 7y ago
  There is so much to say. In practice, DDG revenues depends on tracking visitors. DDG asks third-parties to track (Yahoo/Bing ads), so if someone asks "do you track? NO! WE DON'T". They don't need to create a user profile, the keyword based ads pay enough. This is the catch, "we don't track, but we ask our partners to do it for us". The same with Amazon affiliate revenue. Did you know that DuckDuckGo had access to the whole history of items bought through their affiliate link ? It's a detailed item list, like "3 x Happy Belly Dried Mango, 500 g" Every, single, item. No tracking (◠ ‿ ◠)
kabacha 7y ago
I'm not sure what's the purpose of this comment? You're really grasping for straws here if you're trying to point out that DDG is same as google/bing etc. > Bangs aren't safe. For example typing “!g kittens in basket” and hitting return, drops you off on the Google website to display your results (thus logging your IP, search term and browser info immediately). That's the whole point of bangs is that they redirect you to the website. How do you imagine ddg redirecting you to google without giving google your ip address? > DuckDuckGo is owned by Gabriel Weinberg who is is the founder, current CEO and controlling shareholder. Investors/shareholders include Union Square Ventures and several others. DuckDuckGo generates it’s income from advertising (Bing Ads) and collects affiliate revenue (Amazon, eBay). Is that a bad thing? Ads are keyword based, why is that a bad thing? > Duckduckgo gives out a HTTP header field that identifies the address of the webpage. What does this even mean? Referer?
luhn 7y ago
I feel you may be expecting DDG to be something it’s not meant to be. The jurisdiction and infrastructure aren’t very relevant, DDG is about protecting yourself from advertisers, not the US government. Bangs aren’t supposed to be safe. DDG is quite upfront about that. > Remember, though, because your search is actually taking place on that other site, you are subject to that site’s policies, including its data collection practices. [1] Yes, DDG did use Yahoo to power the searches, now they use Bing. Searches are forwarded anonymously. More than enough to protect you from advertisers. They do advertise based on search keywords. This does not conflict with their mission. Same with affiliate links. The lack of an audit is a fair criticism. Can you elaborate on the header? I would expect DDG to comply with government orders, because I don’t expect DDG to protect me from the government. [1] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang

hardwaresofton 7y ago

As a fan of DDG (I use it daily), I had no idea there was this much risk -- I was surprised enough to find out they offloaded search to Bing a while ago (but also I don't blame them, it's probably pretty hard). Even with these hangups, I still think any near-viable option to Google should exist. [EDIT] - just realized it's only been 20 minutes (not a day) -- looking forward to DDG's response

rvnx 7y ago
There is so much to say. In practice, DDG revenues depends on tracking visitors. DDG asks third-parties to track (Yahoo/Bing ads), so if someone asks "do you track? NO! WE DON'T". They don't need to create a user profile, the keyword based ads pay enough. This is the catch, "we don't track, but we ask our partners to do it for us". The same with Amazon affiliate revenue. Did you know that DuckDuckGo had access to the whole history of items bought through their affiliate link ? It's a detailed item list, like "3 x Happy Belly Dried Mango, 500 g" Every, single, item. No tracking (◠ ‿ ◠)

kabacha 7y ago

I'm not sure what's the purpose of this comment? You're really grasping for straws here if you're trying to point out that DDG is same as google/bing etc. > Bangs aren't safe. For example typing “!g kittens in basket” and hitting return, drops you off on the Google website to display your results (thus logging your IP, search term and browser info immediately). That's the whole point of bangs is that they redirect you to the website. How do you imagine ddg redirecting you to google without giving google your ip address? > DuckDuckGo is owned by Gabriel Weinberg who is is the founder, current CEO and controlling shareholder. Investors/shareholders include Union Square Ventures and several others. DuckDuckGo generates it’s income from advertising (Bing Ads) and collects affiliate revenue (Amazon, eBay). Is that a bad thing? Ads are keyword based, why is that a bad thing? > Duckduckgo gives out a HTTP header field that identifies the address of the webpage. What does this even mean? Referer?

luhn 7y ago

I feel you may be expecting DDG to be something it’s not meant to be. The jurisdiction and infrastructure aren’t very relevant, DDG is about protecting yourself from advertisers, not the US government. Bangs aren’t supposed to be safe. DDG is quite upfront about that. > Remember, though, because your search is actually taking place on that other site, you are subject to that site’s policies, including its data collection practices. [1] Yes, DDG did use Yahoo to power the searches, now they use Bing. Searches are forwarded anonymously. More than enough to protect you from advertisers. They do advertise based on search keywords. This does not conflict with their mission. Same with affiliate links. The lack of an audit is a fair criticism. Can you elaborate on the header? I would expect DDG to comply with government orders, because I don’t expect DDG to protect me from the government. [1] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang