(That's the basis of every ' embarrassing search history' joke.) Instead of making you navigate to a different version of its app, DuckDuckGo never tracks your search history. Other browsers, including Chrome, allow you to use private or incognito windows that don't track your search history, but their default windows do. Read more: Best VPNs of 2021 How does DuckDuckGo work?įor starters, DuckDuckGo does not track searches made through its browser extension or mobile app. It promises to keep your searches private, anonymous and offers built-in tracker blocking, so the sites you visit have a harder time collecting information about you. What is DuckDuckGo?ĭuckDuckGo is a search engine that offers a mobile browser app and a desktop extension, both aimed at allowing you to browse the internet without companies gobbling up your personal data. Here's what you need to know about DuckDuckGo and how it tries to keep your searches more secure. While it doesn't track users, DuckDuckGo's app was downloaded more than 50 million times between July 2020 and June 2021 - more than all other years combined since its 2008 launch.

But DuckDuckGo - which has invested increasingly in an advertising campaign - sees itself as a direct competitor to Google Search, complete with a mobile app and extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and other browsers, as well as a Mac browser in public beta.Īfter major incidents like the Cambridge Analytica scandal, people have become more aware of how much personal information is available to tech companies and advertisers - and are opting out of being tracked when they can. There are other private browsers, such as Brave, that block trackers and third-party cookies monitoring your activity as you search the web. Enter DuckDuckGo, a search engine that pledges to keep your search activity anonymous and not track you online. Sometimes, you just want a little privacy in your browsing. You search for a product or click on an advertisement one time, and then ads for that product seem to follow you to the ends of the internet, even across devices.

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