+ 2021-11-08 15:33:02 EET | + + back + + | + + home + + | + + git + +
++ DuckDuckOH... OH NO.... +
++ DuckDuckGo (more commonly called ddg) is probably the most popular + "privacy respecting search engine", but we can debate that, DuckDuckGo is a company, not your friend, + their ultimate goal is to make money and usually companies do that by farming your data. +
++ First things first - as I already mentioned, ddg is a company an their goal is to make money, +nothing else. +
++ Then there is a fact that ddg is proprietary so you can be sure that it has loads of +unwatched vulnerabilities and as nobody can see the code, they're probably collecting the same, if not +more data about you than google as some stupid criminals might use ddg for illegal things so they can +use the data against them to make $money$. +
++ After that there's the fact they they leave a lot of data in your browser storage +with cookies so I feel like they're doing a lot of identity storing. +Even though it's less than google, it's not as much, from my usage expierience +duckduckgo leaves ~15 cookies where google - ~35, but I use gmail for example, so I think +duckduckgo as it has no other services that I use still tracks you quite a lot. +
++ DuckDuckGo also has !bangs, which is a convenient thing, but breaks all BASIC privacy rules... +It doesn't even fetch it server side when to be private it should, it just redirects you instead with is just +a horrible idea... +
++ They say they don't censor anything, but they have to if they don't want to get in trouble with +the US government, amazon and in general people with higher powers than them. +
++ It's hosted in the US by amazon, even if they didn't collect any data, amazon is, which collects +even more data than google usually and as it's hosted in the US so you don't really get much privacy +by law. +
++ What I liked about ddg: +
++ So I looked around and found + + searx + + , it's basically what duckduckgo is trying to be. +Though note that searx is not a search engine, it's + + a meta search engine + + , which basically means it fetches results server-side and brings them to you, privately. +
++ Searx and its instances are + + open source + + , they have minimal CSS and javascript, +where its back-end is written in python, as they're fully open source you can self host it or you can trust +its instances and use them, I personally use + + searx.tiekoetter.com + + , though it's +(the instance) is hosted in the US, which is not preferred for privacy respecting search engines. +
++ Searx collects no data about you and they're pretty open about what they collect, even your +preferences are stored on the back-end, I personally don't have any cookies from it from using it +for longer than duckduckgo, not even any browser data (I.e localstorage, cookies, etc.). +
++ Searx as far as I can see fills in the holes ddg has: +
++ And in general seems like what ddg is trying to accomplish, but is failing because it has become like +every company, power and data hungry +
++ There is + + nothing + + private on the internet, you can just try to minimise it, which ddg is not doing, +it still is identifying you, which is the only huge part you can really try mitigate. +Its tor service is set up semi-correctly, I feel like it's still not good enough, I don't trust ddg +like you shouldn't. +
++ DuckDuckGo is trying to make look itself the best private thing out there when it just +covers itself with the privacy cloak, when under is hiding the same evil its talking shit +about, as I said, ddg is a company, it doesn't care about you, it's just another power hungry +asshole that you should not trust and only use in a very isolated box. +
++ And if you use ddg you can see how marketing and youtubers shilling ddg got to you, the same +as with + + VPNs + + , you trusted someone and now you made a choice that hurt you when +you thought it will help you, never trust anyone but yourself. The art of marketing and lying +is evil so please, before you use anything, DYOR (do your own research) and think to yourself if +the person telling you to use something is bias, there was money involved, if the product seems too +good to be true and in general, get deeper into it than just trusting someone. +
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