7 ms·

DDG's CEO has a shady background. It's not as privacy centric as they claim to be.

• 1f60c 6y ago
  Source?
  • rydre 6y ago
    His investments into Locately in 2010. Locately is pioneering the science of Location Analytics. Locately's software analyzes semi-continuous GPS data from mobile phones to better understand what consumers do and how they shop. Edit: why the downvotes? :/ I like my HN points...
    • mekster 6y ago
      Either someone who's not comfortable with your comment or you forgot to link to a source.
      • rydre 6y ago
        > Either someone who's not comfortable with your comment Someone who?
        • mekster 6y ago
          Brave team?
  • oefrha 6y ago
    Last time this came up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23709270 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23709270 founder has a bad track record on user privacy. Founded Names Database[1], a social media website designed to collect user information as aggressively as possible, before selling all the information to classmates.com. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_Database https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_Database
• intopieces 6y ago
  Subsequent comments have pointed to the founder’s background. What’s the evidence that DDG itself is not privacy centric as claimed?
  • rydre 6y ago
    1. Founded Names Database - a social media website designed to collect user information as aggressively as possible, before selling all the information to classmates.com.[1] (got this from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23709270 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23709270) 2. Invested in Locately TWO YEARS after founding DDG.[2] Locately, for those unfamiliar with the company, had built a proprietary data-mining engine which collected data from customers’ (opted-in) mobile phones in order to understand more about what sort of behaviors they were engaging in out in the real world. It could tell how a customer moved from one location to the next, what stores they passed along the way, how long they visited stores, what sort of lifestyle or shopper segment the user fell into, which competing stores a consumer would frequent, how a business compared to its rivals, and much more. 3. The DDG favicon issue since 2018. Was only promised to be fixed four days ago after it got to the front page of HN.[3] [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_Database https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_Database [2]https://www.crunchbase.com/person/gabriel-weinberg https://www.crunchbase.com/person/gabriel-weinberg [3]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23708166 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23708166 > What’s the evidence that DDG itself is not privacy centric as claimed? Past behavior is a predictor of future behavior. (see: Zuck, Thiel, Facebook, Palantir) ------ Why the downvotes again? I gave a reasonable reply to their question. At least give me a reason for them... =)
    • intopieces 6y ago
      I asked about the privacy practices of the company and 66% of your answer is about the founder and not the company. I specifically wanted information about DDG, not the founder. This kind of response makes me more suspicious of the outrage.