Duckduckgo - what about it?

[TPMB12]

Is it a safe app for browsing? I know it advertises as blocking snooping, whatever that means, but there's been cases where apps supposedly designed to perform a privacy function and up being a security risk later on.

I guess I'm used to ms browsers, chrome and Firefox but the name is putting me off the duckduckgo browser.

Are there any issues with using it?

[Kim]

I thought it was a search engine...

[Ham]

AFAIK it is clean, but I decided a while back that "better the devil you know"

The potential for negative consequences using a compromised browser or blocking software etc is so huge that I feel leery about using any of 'em - DuckDuckGo, Epic, you name it. The only exception I make is for uBlockOrigin which is not consistent, but hey, otherwise YouTube is unusable. There are always incognito windows, VM and configuration changes that will address specific issues, but then you lose functionality. YMMV, obv.

ETA - Oh yes, additional words need to be added about extensions, which people seem to add willy nilly but actually constitute a huge security risk. Those extensions I have installed (7 total) are all switched off most of the time (except uBlock Origin, as previously mentioned)

EATA - and yes, I was talking generically, but the same holds true on mobile, I use primarily chrome and Firefox as a backup, and live with the shit.

[MikeFromLFE]

I thought it was a search engine...

It's also a browser app on the Google Play Store

[Afasoas]

DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser is based on Chrome/Chromium (WebView).

I've been using it for years for 100% of my browsing on mobile devices. The only gotcha is that whilst it disables most trackers, it enables the Microsoft ones due to their agreement with Microsoft for syndication of Bing search engine data. DDG have publicly acknowledged this and are trying to get this dropped from the syndication arrangement.

90% of my browsing on my pocket computer box is round-robbined over multiple VPN connections so that'll at least confuse the Microsoft trackers.

[lissotriton]

It is owned by a private company, how are they making money out of it? Why trust them more than you trust Google etc?
And much of it is proprietary code (though partly based on free/open source software).

[Kim]

It is owned by a private company, how are they making money out of it? Why trust them more than you trust Google etc?
And much of it is proprietary code (though partly based on free/open source software).

Looking into it, the App source appears to be published on GitHub with an Apache licence.

Which doesn't preclude horrible security bugs that nobody has noticed, but it is somewhat reassuring.


I believe the DuckDuckGo business model is that they sell advertising, but in the old-fashioned way were it's determined by what you're searching for, rather than who they think you are.

[Afasoas]

It is owned by a private company, how are they making money out of it? Why trust them more than you trust Google etc?
And much of it is proprietary code (though partly based on free/open source software).

The Android Browser for instance, is OpenSource.
https://github.com/duckduckgo/Android

I trust DuckDuckGo much more than I trust Google - Google has too many conflicts of interest and, relative to DuckDuckGo, a dubious track record.

Edit: cross post with Kim

[Bluebottle]

Not exactly addressing the OP, but tangentially related for browsers and privacy:

https://proton.me/blog/best-browser-for-privacy

[fruitcake]

I reckon DDG search is OK. It sends your search query to Bing and as DDG is an internediary, you don't interact directly with Bing, and so Bing is not able to use your search history to skew its results. That's the DDG search engine

Brave is a web browser that rejects tracking cookies and similar. Runs fast and reduces your mobile data use as a result. Since you won't see personalised content or search results, it can be good for SEO work. 

[Canardly]

Used it for years without issue. Add ons include no script which is really useful.

[barakta]

We are forced by default to use Ecosia for work and I use DDG for about 50% of my searching on my main computer, but there are times it is hopeless and I have to revert back to Google (although Google is getting worse with excessive generative AI LLM content that is nonsense).

[dacfvid]

Not exactly addressing the OP, but tangentially related for browsers and privacy:

https://proton.me/blog/best-browser-for-privacy

Thanks for sharing the article, @Bluebottle. I am using Firebox and Brave browsers, both mentioned on the article.

[Bluebottle]

Service!