Is DuckDuckGo safe to use? Does its privacy measures offer a better deal than those presented by more popular services like Google and Brave? In short, the answer is yes, DuckDuckGo is one search engine that doesn’t track your online activity quite so unabashedly as its competitors. Its privacy-friendly services are touted as some of the best in the industry, prompting many users to turn to its ability to safeguard their online activity.
Despite its security tools and its offers of privacy, some decisions that the company has made in the past have damaged its reputation and reduced the trust that users felt towards the company. The criticisms of DuckDuckGo aside, the search engine can still exceed expectations.
Is DuckDuckGo Safe?
Browsers like Bing and Google have been accused of using cookies to track user activity, create user profiles, and peddle the data to other third-party businesses that can make use of the information to sell targeted products to the user.
Even if you switch to a private browsing session, most often, the data is recorded in one form or another. The concept of “privacy” has been distorted over the years to the point where we often become indifferent to the fact that our data is being bought and sold. That is until a major security breach occurs to jolt us back to our senses. This free exchange of services for information isn’t ideal, but it is how most browsers can make the business model work for them, “most” being the key term.
The DuckDuckGo search engine and browser offer an alternative to our tendency to “Google” everything. The tools function just like any other browser and search portal, allowing you to access all the websites of your choice, but at the same time, the company promises not to track any of your activities.
Are DuckDuckGo’s Claims of Privacy Reliable?
Safety concerns regarding the claims DuckDuckGo makes are entirely valid, but you can review your security settings and cookies at any time to determine how your information is being used. For a browser to work, it does take some amount of data like an IP address, language settings, etc. for it to identify you as a human and determine the basic settings for your activity, but this information is only used temporarily. The browser does not share the information with the websites you access or other third-party advertisers who can put that information to use.
Your browsing is protected by Smarter Encryption technology to see if a website can be upgraded to an encrypted version if possible, allowing your activity online to be more obscured from external watchers. According to their website, there are over 10 million sites that are on the list of encryptable pages, which means more often than not, your online activity is hidden. “Because the connection between you and DuckDuckGo Search is encrypted that means your internet provider can’t see the searches you make on DuckDuckGo either,” which is good to hear.
The search engine is transparent about its data usage, providing users with a description of what information is required and what it will be used for. For those who require more privacy, the DuckDuckGo settings give users the option to opt out of various services.
The browser also provides protection against embedded social media content on the pages you visit, as these bits of view farms do their own share of tracking. Even if you choose to unblock the content, DuckDuckGo will limit the extent of data that is shared. It’s these little details that give you a sense of just how extensive the security services are.
DuckDuckGo Safety Concerns—There Are a Few Vulnerabilities to Look Out For
DuckDuckGo has faced criticism for multiple reasons, including complaints about its lack of personalization. The search engine isn’t as convenient to use, especially with its more limited index of websites, so apart from the privacy aspect of it there is little reason to pick it over another engine.
It is also true that using DuckDuckGo doesn’t stop your Wi-Fi owner or internet provider from seeing what you are up to. To completely mask your internet activity, you still need a VPN to encrypt all of your activity. It is also true that you will still be susceptible to viruses and other kinds of cyberattacks despite using this search engine and browser.
Despite these criticisms of DuckDuckGo, the search engine is as safe as you can get when you go online. All online activity gets recorded one way or another, but DuckDuckGo’s privacy mechanisms far trump what you can get from another browser. Not only does it refuse to misuse your data, it also does what is possible to block out others from doing the safe.
Ensure you have a good antivirus system to help keep you safe and you should have very little to worry about. Now is a bad time to be a Kaspersky user if you live in the U.S. but other antivirus tools can help you stay safe. Find a combination that works best for you, and you should be able to browse the web with ease.