DuckDuckGo Isn’t as Private as You Thought

[rcjordan]

https://www.reviewgeek.com/118915/duckduckgo-isnt-as-private-as-you-thought/

[Brad]

Having control over your own search index and ads network makes all the difference in the world.

This has done a lot of damage to DDG.  When the vast majority of your faithful users are concerned about their privacy and a certain amount are downright paranoid it does not go well when they learn that there are secret exceptions to that privacy.

What has been broken with DDG is that one-click install and you are protected belief.

That said, DDG search might still be better than most others for privacy.

https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/search.html

[BoL]

Related, though for browsing not their search

Bing contract prohibits DuckDuckGo from completely blocking Microsoft tracking

Twitter post is a Brave employee

[Brad]

DDG has got themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  Worse, it's hard to defend yourself when you have to post four long paragraphs explaining that you are contractually bound not to talk about it but you are still better than all the rest that use Bing. Trust us.

Nah, that doesn't work.

Added:

An overview of the situation:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/duckduckgo-browser-allows-microsoft-trackers-due-to-search-agreement/

[rcjordan]

Ads by Microsoft on DuckDuckGo Private Search | DuckDuckGo Help Pages
https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/company/ads-by-microsoft-on-duckduckgo-private-search/

[rcjordan]

DuckDuckGo will block more Microsoft ad tracking scripts to improve browser privacy
https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/5/23292280/duckduckgo-microsoft-third-party-ad-tracker-script-blocking

[rcjordan]

Don't use DuckDuckGo
https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/remyabel.srht.site/posts/2022-08-11.gmi


My take on how DuckDuckGo can outperform Google.
https://daniloedu.medium.com/my-take-on-how-duckduckgo-can-outperform-google-e52191e49558

[ergophobe]

>> My take

Rather glib...

So, that's another opportunity for DuckDuckGo, by ranking the results based on the content's quality and relevance, as Google used to do before.

Another major source of low-quality content is websites that automatically generate content using AI.

If Google or DDG knew how to do this, they would. Measuring quality and relevance had never been something Google has been good at, despite 20 years of trying.