Bonum Certa Men Certa

DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser Isn’t Private

Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about DuckDuckGo, the “branding condom” for Microsoft Bing.



The company is basically “fake”. It has a tiny little office, very few employees, almost all of the results are from Microsoft Bing, and it transmits the search parameters to Microsoft to get those results.



"About the only good thing about DuckDuckGo and Microsoft is, they did stop censoring my blog."About the only good thing about DuckDuckGo and Microsoft is, they did stop censoring my blog. I see traffic coming in from them now. I think Microsoft changed their search index and DuckDuckGo changed because Bing did.



The company has been caught exempting Microsoft trackers, then claimed that “Oh yeah, it turns out we had that deal with Microsoft to not block THEIR trackers in our ‘Privacy’ Browser.”



Later, Microsoft let them change the agreement, but the fact that they were dishonest with their users and allowed one of the biggest surveillance monsters through, quietly, shows how much you can trust DuckDuckGo [1] [2] and Gabriel Weinberg.



And it’s even hosted in Microsoft Azure, where Microsoft can take a look at everything that’s going on inside the “DuckDuckGo” server. So they have the technical capabilities to look at who is making the searches, and what the searches are.



DuckDuckGo processing



DuckDuckGo processing



As if this wasn’t enough, DuckDuckGo has tracking scripts and a tracking pixel of their own that follow you around on their site, if you don’t block this, called “Improving DuckDuckGo”.



"Also notice all the Social Media crap it got and something called “bing_market”."Adguard Tracking Protection, one of the ad blocking lists for trackers, includes the tracking pixel and the Improving DuckDuckGo script, so you get warnings from your ad blocker that DuckDuckGo is tracking you.



Also notice all the Social Media crap it got and something called “bing_market”. LOL



But lately, they have themselves a new “scam”. DuckDuckGo “Privacy Browser”.



"Plain old Mozilla Firefox browsing around with no privacy extensions at all is actually more private than DuckDuckGo on Android."One reason this is a “scam”, so to speak, is that it doesn’t actually block much tracking on Android.



Plain old Mozilla Firefox browsing around with no privacy extensions at all is actually more private than DuckDuckGo on Android.



On iOS, where all browsers inherit whatever Apple has done to WebKit, DuckDuckGo’s browser is better than Android, but still not great.



These are not platform limitations. DuckDuckGo actually just doesn’t block very much tracking.



On Privacy Tests, by far, Brave had the most green checkmarks for blocking Web tracking.



Another reason you know something is “not right” with DuckDuckGo’s “Privacy” Browser, is that the desktop version only supports the least private, least secure operating systems on the market. Windows, and Mac.



It has completely left out Linux distributions, where for the most part the OS is just an OS, and doesn’t send your keystrokes, application launches, crash data, or hard drive contents to anyone, whereas Windows and Mac do, automatically, behind-the-scenes, without asking the user.



Even if DuckDuckGo’s “Privacy Browser” wasn’t questionable, prima facie, they do encourage insecure and non-private operating systems, thus ensuring their users will be spied on by the OS vendors.



"DuckDuckGo actually just doesn’t block very much tracking."The reason why DuckDuckGo can “block Web trackers” and have that hardly matter at all, is because the threat landscape of the Web is constantly growing.



Many years ago, it was sufficient to just block certain ad and tracking servers, and browse with JavaScript turned off.



Today, led by Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla, the Web platform is becoming more menacing.



You can block specific “content”, but the threat actors are operating at a higher scale than ever, leveraging “questionable” Web technologies.



Unless your browser is doing something to partition, sandbox, and disable these technologies, and either most of them or all of them, to confuse these “higher level attacks” and fingerprinting attempts, you’re really not being protected by anything “just blacklisting some resources”.



"It has completely left out Linux distributions, where for the most part the OS is just an OS, and doesn’t send your keystrokes, application launches, crash data, or hard drive contents to anyone, whereas Windows and Mac do, automatically, behind-the-scenes, without asking the user."That’s certainly better than nothing, but it’s not enough.



The most sophisticated thing about Chromium-based Web browsers is how many ways they give the Web site to attack and profile the user. Chrome and Edge are the worst, Brave is fixing a lot of it. At least they try to help the user.



Brave and LibreWolf are the only two desktop browsers left to recommend.



I firmly believe that the only purpose of DuckDuckGo’s Browser is to route traffic to DuckDuckGo (captive audience), and perhaps screw up everyone else’s ad network, but this is the same behavior that you see Microsoft Edge engaging in.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Receiving SLAPPs and Collecting Them Like Trophies (the SLAPPs Always Fail)
People who file lawsuits bring even more attention to themselves (or to embarrassing statements about them)
Year of GNU/Linux on the Laptop?
It's not happening only in Lenovo
What People Must Understand About the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
some facts about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society
It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous
In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
 
What's Very Vexing to GAFAM, EPO and Others Is That It's Incredibly Hard to Censor Us (and Nobody Ever Successfully Did That Before)
resist, do not capitulate
Site May be Even Faster Now
It basically takes less than a tenth of a second to serve the page
Many of the Scandals Are Interconnected (Overlapping People and Corporations)
We're only getting started
Links 26/04/2025: General Assassinated in the Town of Balashikha, US Promoting Seafloor Mining
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025