Why I No Longer Trust The DuckDuckGo Search Engine For Browsing
From an original article published on PrivacyWe.com at: https://privacywe.com/why-you-shouldnt-trust-duckduckgo-any-more/
When you use a privacy-based search engine like DuckDuckGo, you do so expecting that you won’t be tracked and your search data won’t be shared with anyone, especially big tech companies.
Imagine finding out that the people you trusted the most with your most confidential and intimate private searches were tracking, identifying, and handing over your profile to Microsoft.
A Violation of Trust
That’s exactly what happened with DuckDuckGo. The popular search engine is now facing massive user backlash after security researcher Zach Edwards discovered the browser was permitting Microsoft to track web surfers as part of a secret agreement between DuckDuckGo and Microsoft.
The “rub” or “kick in the <ahem!>” comes from the very fact that DuckDuckGo boasts their browser as the safest and most trustworthy of them all. They boast they do not track search, behaviors, or build marketing profiles of its users that can be sold later to display advertisers.
Turns out that wasn’t true. The revelation of the secret agreement changes how Internet users will continue to protect their search privacy while online.
People like you and I have come to trust DuckDuckGo as the safest and most trustworthy search engine available. And now it’s not.
Gabriel Weinberg, CEO, and founder of DuckDuckGo, has confirmed the news to be correct and accurate.
Weinberg formally stated, “… the company never promised full anonymity when browsing.” Obviously, this kind of back-peddling word play comes as a shock and surprise to the online community that had been deliberately misled into believing the company actually does provide anonymity while browsing.
The Reality Of What DuckDuckGo Is Doing
“You can capture data within the DuckDuckGo so-called private browser on a website like Facebook’s workplace.com and you’ll see that DuckDuckGo does NOT stop data flows to Microsoft’s LinkedIn domains or their Bing advertising domains,” reported Zach Edwards on his Twitter feed on May 2022. “Sometimes you find something so disturbing during an audit, you’ve gotta check/recheck because you assume that *something* must be broken in the test. But I’m confident now. The new @DuckDuckGo browsers for iOS/Android don’t block Microsoft data flows, for LinkedIn or Bing.”
Let that sink in for a moment. The new DuckDuckGo browsers for iOS and Android DO NOT block Microsoft data flows, for LinkedIn or Bing. That’s a really big deal and a search privacy game changer!
And this is no accident. DuckDuckGo now makes the following statement on the App Stores:
“While we block all cross-site (3rd party) cookies on other sites you visit, we cannot block all hidden tracking scripts on non-DuckDuckGo sites for a variety of reasons including: new scripts pop up all the time making them difficult to find, blocking some scripts creates breakage making parts or all of the page unusable, some we are prevented from blocking due to contractual restrictions with Microsoft.”
The Online Backlash
Ordinary folks like you and I are in an uproar on Twitter and Reddit. We look to software solutions to help protect us and preserve our privacy and anonymity. As a user, I’m uncomfortable and very concerned about what this means for privacy, safety, and trust moving forward. DuckDuckGo was the go-to “safe” alternative for Google’s search. It offered the protection, safety, privacy, and anonymity I wanted.
I’m now forced to ask, what else is DuckDuckGo filtering or collecting? Can I expect to have my searches limited based on political, ideological, or woke agendas? Should I expect a knock at my door if I dissent or go against the status quo? Is DuckDuckGo collecting and reporting data to the government or police agencies? And if so, whose government and police agencies?
For a company that so strongly boasted of protecting our right to privacy and anonymity, the optics do not look good. Can we really be expected to trust them anymore?
Should You Trust DuckDuckGo?
I want to. But I can not. Privacy is not something to be trifled with. It’s not a commodity to be bought and sold. Burn us once and you don’t get another chance. The trust is gone.
At PrivacyWe, we recommend StartPage as your default search engine and protector of your privacy and trust.
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Thank you.
