With the increasing threats of cyber attacks, people are now concerned about their data. Many people know their data’s actual worth in this modern era. They stop using search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and more that collect the user’s personal information.
Privacy-concerned people are moving towards alternative search engines that don’t utilize their data. DuckDuckGo is one of them.
It is a famous private search engine company that provides safe and secure browsing. It ensures it doesn’t track users’ data and online activity. This makes it an impressive alternative to a few popular search engines for users concerned about their private data.
You can download DuckDuckGo on your iOS and Android devices through app stores. In addition, you can add its extension on Google Chrome.
Let’s dive into the depth of our article and find out how safe and reliable it is.
What is DuckDuckGo?
DuckDuckGo is an American-based internet privacy company that provides a search engine, apps, and extensions to keep users safe from Google, Bing, Facebook, and other web trackers.
The service is known for providing safe and secure browsing. Although DuckDuckGo is a free service, it doesn’t save any user’s private data and ensures your data is safe and secure from the reach of third parties. Therefore, you encounter fewer ads.
It doesn’t provide personalized search results. Every time you search for anything, you start from scratch, and every user gets the same results if they search for a similar term.
Moreover, its encryption policy keeps you safe from “search leakages,” which makes DuckDuckGo safe and secure.
How Does DuckDuckGo Protect Your Data?
DuckDuckGo search engine allows you to search anonymously. Unlike its competitors, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo, it doesn’t track your IP address or record your online activity. Whenever you search for a term, it will always show the same results as you’re searching from scratch, saving you from encountering many ads.
This service protects you from search leakage but will provide some information on the court’s order. So, is it safe to use? Yes, it is far safer than Google, Bing, and other search engines that monetize your online activity and keeps your data, preferences, and search results to show ads according to it.
Why Does it Matter to Use An Anonymous Search Engine?
Browsing on popular search engines (i.e., Google, Bing, Yahoo) isn’t safe anymore. They record your browsing history even in incognito mode and don’t keep it to themselves. These search engines sell your online activity and other personal information, including IP address, name, age, marital status, interests, and preferences, to high-paying advertising brands. Your information helps brands reach you and show ads according to your preferences and interests.
However, this isn’t the case with DuckDuckGo. Anonymous browsing on this search engine means it does not keep your IP address, online activity, or your personal information. Therefore, you will get fewer irrelevant ads on it than other search engines. However, when you click on the website’s link and go to the other page, you follow the website’s rules. DuckDuckGo doesn’t work on the website’s pages.
Top 7 DuckDuckGo Features
Below are the seven vital features that DuckDuckGo to enhance your browsing experience:
1. Blank Search History
As we discussed, DuckDuckGo doesn’t save any user’s information and browsing history, so it is impossible to track your previous searches. To enhance your privacy, go to your browser’s settings and forbid it from saving visited pages. However, your ISP can remember the pages you visited if you are not using a VPN or a custom DNS server to change your IP address. ExtremeVPN routes your online traffic through an encrypted tunnel, thus hiding it from your ISPs and other criminal organizations.
2. No Ad Trackers
DuckDuckGo doesn’t keep your browsing history, preferences, and interests the major information ad trackers rely on. Therefore, you won’t encounter many ads like you do on other search engines. However, Microsoft ad trackers are still active using a private search engine in the background.
3. No User Profiles
Search engines ask you to make your user profile in which they gather your information like age, gender, IP address, browsing history, online activity, and more. They personalize your information and show ads according to it. However, DuckDuckGo doesn’t offer any user profiles. Whenever you search for something, you start from scratch.
4. Enhanced Encryption
Although DuckDuckGo cannot shield your data from being tracked when you access a website through its search results, it enforces HTTPS encryption on those sites, enhancing your online security.
5. Little to No Spam
DuckDuckGo has partnered with the Parked Domain Project to eliminate spam from search results. Unlike its competitors, DuckDuckGo takes a unique approach by relying on humans to scan search results and remove spammy websites.
Additionally, it showcases web resources that come with human-crafted meta-tags, giving users a more authentic and trustworthy experience. It prioritizes official websites in its search engine results page (SERP) rankings.
6. The Same Search Results for Everyone
Other search engines record your browsing history, preferences, and interests, which helps them show you the search results you like. That’s why many users get different search results. However, DuckDuckGo doesn’t save your information, so everyone gets the same result for the same term.
7. Comprehensive Search
DuckDuckGo offers a Bangs feature, which helps users to access over 13,000 authentic websites, including Wikipedia, retail stores like Amazon, some social media sites, and more.
Is DuckDuckGo Profitable?
Many users question how DuckDuckGo makes money if it is free and doesn’t track users’ data. So the answer is it generates revenue through affiliate marketing. The service shows some ads according to your search request, and when you purchase something using that link, it gets some commission.
Can You Be Tracked on DuckDuckGo?
It is difficult to say you can be tracked on this platform because of its amazing private features. However, it isn’t easy to bear the cost of all these features for free, which confuses users that they can be tracked. So, the answer is complicated. Let’s discuss the reasons behind it.
Why DuckDuckGo Can’t Track You?
Unlike Google and other search engines, DuckDuckGo doesn’t save your information and other online activities, which helps to remove the chances of search leakage.
The search engine encrypts the information and doesn’t send it further to sites. Therefore, no website will know that you come from DuckDuckGo.
However, this search engine isn’t good enough to save you from local hacking. Your browsing history remains on your computers and can help hackers to track you as the clicked websites appear darker.
Therefore, if your device encounters a cyber attack, DuckDuckGo’s protection will not be able to save you.
Ways That Let DuckDuckGo Track You
Although the website doesn’t know your origin, it offers insights into your destination through the provided links. By leading you back to your search, these links enable the search engine to trace your activities with enough effort.
Furthermore, they may track you if you willingly disclose your details to DuckDuckGo.
What Is the Difference Between DuckDuckGo and Google?
Below are the major key differences between DuckDuckGo and Google:
Tracking: Google collects your data and online activity for advertising purposes. However, DuckDuckGo doesn’t track your online activity or data. It shows ads related to the current search results.
Personalization: Google keeps your preferences and interests to show you the best results you want to get. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo shows results every time, like you are searching from the start.
Convenience: Google is more convenient than DuckDuckGo. You can synchronize your Google account on many platforms, while DuckDuckGo doesn’t offer this feature because of the no-user profile policy.
Note: DuckDuckGo is much safer than Google, but you must compromise on convenience and personalization.
Are There Any DuckDuckGo Alternatives?
In this modern era, almost every tech-related thing has its alternatives. Below are a few alternatives for DuckDuckGo:
Starpage
Starpage is a Dutch search engine known for its amazing privacy and security. Like DuckDuckGo, this search engine doesn’t track users’ data and online activity. Therefore, it doesn’t share your information with third parties.
The service provides an embedded proxy to mask your IP address and enhance your privacy. In addition, Starpage offers Google Search Results for comprehensive research.
Tor Browser
This browser is built on the foundation of Firefox to save users’ data from third parties. The service uses a unique privacy method. It splits and encrypts users’ data into many pieces and later sends it through a randomized sequence of servers. Therefore, it becomes impossible to find out the origin of the request.
However, all this encryption and transferring of your data through various servers take time. Many users use it to access the dark web because it is impossible to trace the originator.
VPN
Private search engines ensure they don’t track your data and provide an anonymous browsing experience. Still, they don’t ensure about providing data encryption, which allows Govt. agencies and ISPs to access your browsing history. In addition, public wifi users are at higher risk of cyber attacks.
A VPN helps users to hide their IP address and provides data encryption that keeps their information safe from third parties, including hackers, ISPs, Govt. bodies, and more. We suggest you use a top-notch VPN, like ExtremeVPN, with DuckDuckGo, to browse whatever you want securely.
Why Choose ExtremeVPN?
ExtremeVPN offers a reliable virtual private network (VPN) that enables secure web browsing by connecting through VPN servers across 78+ countries. Here are some vital features that ExtremeVPN offers to enhance your security and online activity:
- Customization: ExtremeVPN allows you to customize it according to your preferences. You can route all your web traffic through encrypted servers or choose specific websites for routing.
- Extensive Server Locations: With the help of ExtremeVPN’s 6500+ servers, you can access geo-restricted websites and content by selecting the server of an available location. You can also choose the best ping server to enhance your browsing experience.
- Improved Internet Connection: ExtremeVPN lets you experience browsing at high-speed. It also supports a cutting-edge QUIC network protocol that enhances internet speed during poor connection.
- Kill Switch: ExtremeVPN’s Kill Switch feature helps you automatically disconnect your internet connection to keep your information secure in case of VPN connection interruption.
- Simultaneous device connections: Enjoy seamless protection by connecting up to ten devices simultaneously, ensuring comprehensive security across multiple devices.
- Unlimited Monthly traffic: With ExtremeVPN, users can stream movies, play games, and browse the internet without reaching their monthly cap. It allows users to enjoy unrestricted internet access with complete freedom.
DuckDuckGo: Pros and Cons
Pros
- No tracked user data – it doesn’t keep any user’s information and browsing history.
- No stored user data – DuckDuckGo stores very minute data for search suggestions and spell corrections.
- Pure search results – as it offers no personalization, it directly shows the desired results.
- No ads – it doesn’t show annoying ads and pop-ups.
- One scroll experience – the search engine shows you all the search results on a single page.
- Bangs – this feature helps users to experience comprehensive search.
- Instant answers – like Google, it also answers the question without letting you open the webpage.
- Accessibility: The search engine is easily accessible. You can avail it on your Android and iOS devices by downloading its app through app stores. Furthermore, you can access it through a Chrome extension.
Cons
- Lack of personalization – DuckDuckGo doesn’t save users’ information, so finding search results based on your local listings is hard.
- Convenience – unlike Google, it doesn’t synchronize with multiple platforms because it doesn’t offer a user profile.
Conclusion
DuckDuckGo doesn’t monetize your online activity, preferences, and interests, which makes it safer than Google and other search engines. However, it lacks personalization and convenience and shows less comprehensive results than Google.
This service lets you browse anonymously, but when you visit a site, you follow the site’s rules, and they use cookies which can affect your privacy. DuckDuckGo is safe to use but can’t provide 100% privacy and security. Therefore, we suggest you use ExtremeVPN with it. It will enhance your privacy and security.
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