A Search Engine That Doesn’t Track You?

I’ve stumbled upon this site before, but only recently did I decide to investigate it further.  The search engine is called DuckDuckGo and was established 10 years ago, believe it or not. The site was created by Gabriel Weinberg back in 2008 with a simplistic goal, to be encrypted and keep your search queries and information private!

When I initially navigated my way to the site years ago, I was unimpressed by the plain appearance and dismissed it quickly, much as I did MANY years ago when I first went on this website called Google. Then I discovered Google’s capabilities and well, the rest is history as is apparently them keeping my search history and using it for financial gain. However, I recently checked it out and my second time on DuckDuckGo was a little different. I scrolled down and saw a sentence that read “The search engine that doesn’t track you.” Years ago this wasn’t as impressive or important to me as it is now in the wake of the internet data privacy breaches that have been making waves in the media for the last couple of years.

Apparently, I’m not the only one that is intrigued with DuckDuckGo and their mission. As mentioned, DDG, was established 10 years ago, but only recently has the site seen incredible gains in web traffic. In 2018, search queries have exploded to over 25 million, compared to only 79,000 daily searches back in 2010 when the website launched.

So the next questions are… how are they making money since they’re not selling your personal information? The company raised funds through Venture Capitals and also have search and display advertising. However, it’s different from how Google and other search engines trigger ads based on your personal information. Ads displayed on DuckDuckGo’s pages are solely based on the keywords in users’ search queries, and not some AI-generated ad profile. To increase their privacy, users can even choose to turn off the display of ads on the results page. They also have affiliate marketing partnerships with Amazon and eBay. Meaning, they earn a certain percentage of any purchase you make through links from their search engine.

So can we truly believe that DuckDuckGo keeps your information private? According to their Privacy Policy, we can. Also, there has been no report of them being caught or found collecting, tracking, or sharing their user’s personal information. In fact, they also actively donate to organizations who contribute to its privacy mission and vision. The company has donated over $1.3 million from 2011 to date.

DuckDuckGo is not the only privacy-focused search engine there is (see other links below) but it’s one of the most popular out there. Their recent surge has been the gateway for privacy-focused social media sites like Vero, so watch out Facebook! So with all the doubt swirling about your personal security on the internet, sites like DuckDuckGo are a breath of fresh air.

A few other Privacy-Focused search engines to consider…

Startpage

Qwant