Some time ago you were looking for home appliances and now you see their ads everywhere? It is disturbing, but also… expectable. Ad networks use Google search terms to display particular products later. The search engine DuckDuckGo is an alternative. Does it protect your privacy better? Check out!
DuckDuckGo – What is it?
DuckDuckGo is a search engine famous for its strict privacy policy. Standing as an alternative to Google, it does not allow data leaks as much as its more famous rival.
To use it, you need to go to the DuckDuckGo website, where you can safely search for a phrase right away, or download the entire browser to your computer by clicking DuckDuckGo download. It is also available for Android and iOS phones.
Online privacy – Is it possible?
Our privacy on the internet is less than it may seem. The results of our internet searches (e.g. on Google) are leaked every day – with our consent. Clicking on a search link triggers the sending of our data (IP address, passwords, search terms, etc.) to the site. Every site we visit has information about us.
Not many people are aware of this. The more aware ones reach for protected search engines. One of them is DuckDuckGo. It does not collect any information about the user – search terms are not passed on to other sites.
Is DuckDuckGo completely safe?
Not really. The collection of search information is much smaller than in classic search engines, but full protection is not guaranteed. If you go from a search engine to a site that wants to collect activity information, that site may often already be doing so.
Is it worth using this alternative search engine? It depends on what is most important to you. More privacy or convenience?
DuckDuckGo VS Google
On the one hand, DuckDuckGo search engine provides a high level of security, no ads matching the last search term attack from everywhere, and it enforces the maximum level of encryption on sites, and searching for images (DuckDuckGo image search) or maps is just as easy in both search engines.
On the other hand, however, it has several drawbacks. First of all, the search results are less accurate compared to Google. It also does not deal with grammatical variation of phrases. The older site is getting better at recognizing the Polish language with its grammatical variants, phraseological compounds, etc. Unfortunately, the younger one does not have this ability – it finds the searched phrases literally, so we do not always get in the results what we expect.
In the case of Google search results, people fall into a kind of “information bubble”. This means that the algorithm suggests answers to queries that may appeal to the user, and in doing so, provide better sales. Search results are selected based on the users previous clicks. The internet user then has no opportunity to get neutral messages.
In the case of DuckDuckGo, the search results are not personalized, which can be useful for people who want to get a point of view from several sides.
Internet security – the basics
But if ease of search is more important to you than privacy, that does not mean all sites need to get data about you. A secure search engine is not the only way to increase your privacy. A secure search engine only works for advertising companies, and that is not the only realm that wants to gain as much information about you as possible.
We often search deeper, forgetting the basics.
What can you do to ensure your online privacy?
- Use secure search engines, such as DuckDuckGo.
- Use two-step verification.
- Set different passwords for different accounts.
- Use only secure instant messengers
- Use a VPN.
Alternative search engines
If you do not trust Google and want to use another search engine, but for some reason DuckDuckGo does not suit you, you have several other options.
Qwant
This is a search engine that also allows you to browse content anonymously. Its network leaves no trace on the servers you visit. Tracking algorithms do not get information about you because Quant does not save your search data. Unlike Google, searches are not tailored to your preferences, so you can get more objective answers.
Ecosia
This is a search engine whose servers are powered by renewable energy sources. This search engine tries to be environmentally neutral and it donates part of its profits to planting forests.