Today, DuckDuckGo has expanded beyond a simple search engine and now offers a mobile browser app, the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser on Android and iOS, and a desktop extension for Google Chrome.ĭuckDuckGo’s Daniel Davis says user privacy should trump an organization’s marketing interestsĪs the company does not track visitors, user base estimates are difficult. No intrusionĭuckDuckGo does not collect user data, search queries, or purchase histories, and does not use or permit trackers – the most common approach employed by organizations to compile user profiles – so searches are kept private.īut how does such a company make money? Adverts are displayed on search engine results, but rather than targeting ads at users, DuckDuckGo’s advertising is based on the search results being viewed. “We share our most intimate information with search engines – financial, medical, – and that information deserves to be private and not used for profiling or data targeting,” Davis commented. Speaking to The Daily Swig, Daniel Davis, DuckDuckGo’s communications manager, said that the company has taken a different approach and “we believe getting privacy online should be simple and accessible to everyone, period”. The DuckDuckGo homepage has become a familiar sight Rather than charge users for an online service, some would argue that collecting data on users – such as their search queries, web page visits, and ‘likes’ on social media – is a fair trade.įor DuckDuckGo, however, the company believes that a right to privacy should trump marketing interests. This revenue stream becomes its most lucrative when data is used to create user profiles, resulting in personalized ad targeting. There is money to be made in online advertising, and this ecosystem is the lifeblood of everything from media outlets to search engines and social media platforms. The first iterations of the DuckDuckGo search engine, launched in 2008, focused on offering improved search results – taking on the likes of Google and Yahoo! – but as time went on, the company’s attention pivoted to emerging security and privacy challenges. INTERVIEW DuckDuckGo’s journey started as an idea in the mind of Gabriel Weinberg, who found poor search results and high levels of spam a daily annoyance when he was browsing the web. DuckDuckGo’s Daniel Davis discusses the privacy-focused search engine’s future in the market

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