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Duck Duck Go shows Google what privacy really is

TTOOLL

Member
DuckDuckGo Calls Out Google Search for 'Spying' on Users After Privacy Labels Go Live - MacRumors

"Google recently added App Privacy labels to its Google Search app, spelling out the extent of information that's collected. For third-party advertising purposes, Google collects data that includes location, search history, and browsing history. Google's own marketing data includes all of the above information along with contact info and device identifiers, plus there's even more data collected for analytics, app functionality, and product personalization.


DuckDuckGo claims that Google "wanted to hide" the information that it collects, which is why Google took so long to roll out support for App Privacy labels. Most people are likely not surprised at the extent of the data that Google collects, but having it in one spot in the ‌App Store‌ is a stark reminder."

 

Arkam

Member
Using DDG right now. Brave is also great for desktop browsing.

Don’t forget Google was censoring political searches way before the other SM giants did.
That’s my combo too. Been using DDG for a couple years, but just got on Brave a couple months back. That pair and a VPN makes me feel slightly less exposed and some semblance of privacy.
 
I use DDG as my primary search engine on my phone but I'm really dumb and didn't know they had a browser/app for mobile. DLing it now and going to be google free.
 

AJUMP23

Member



Duck Duck Go is good for me, but only for general searches. I hope it continues to improve so I'll have to rely on google less often.

She Binged it. 😂

I like the guy that got fired by Balmer for not saying Bing in a chipper enough tone.
 

Fbh

Member
Just installed their browser on my phone to check it out.

I was trying out Firefox because I like it on PC and they have ublock on mobile. But even after re-installing it multiple times it keeps doing this thing where at random it will just stop working for some reason, the load bar will stay at like a quarter full, as if there was no internet (except every other app and browser works fine)
 

VN1X

Banned
I just wish Duck Duck Go wasn't called Duck Duck Go so we could actually get an alternative verb to "just google it".
 

Soodanim

Member
I’ve had it installed on my phone for ages, because I wanted it to be the best. But on iOS it’s a shame I can’t replace the burn button (wipes all cookies except for whitelisted sites) with another button of my choosing, like share or refresh.

I can’t remember what iOS DDG gif support is like (Firefox stutters), so time to test in the only real way: Vince
vince mcmahon GIF

Walking In Vince Mcmahon GIF by WWE
 
S

Sidney Prescott

Unconfirmed Member
Is it better than Firefox?

I tried switching over to that recently, and performance was really bad compared to Chrome. It was incredibly noticeable on YouTube and Twitch. So many stutters, sadly.
 

Miles708

Member
I could be wrong but I thought there was a bit of a kerfuffle over Brave privacy policies? Or am i misremembering?

Anyway i use DDG daily, sadly i have to revert to Google quite frequently but it's getting better

For browsers, both on desktop and mobile quite frankly I only trust Firefox, at the moment.
I've also didn't see an ad on YouTube in years, which is a nice plus.
 
I could be wrong but I thought there was a bit of a kerfuffle over Brave privacy policies? Or am i misremembering?

Anyway i use DDG daily, sadly i have to revert to Google quite frequently but it's getting better

For browsers, both on desktop and mobile quite frankly I only trust Firefox, at the moment.
I've also didn't see an ad on YouTube in years, which is a nice plus.
Yeah there was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding Brave, but if I recall correctly; It was mostly due to the internal ad network (Which can be disabled) & token distribution that came along with Brave.

For anyone saying they trust Firefox the most, you mayswell migrate to Brave as it was created by the Co-Founder of Firefox Brendan Eich; Who is actually also the guy who created JavaScript.

As someone who is security focused, literally my job; Google is light years ahead of DDG, and is honestly painful to use at this point still. Also finding it hilarous that we are all worried about giving Google our data, while likely using a Windows 10 PC.
 

Miles708

Member
Yeah there was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding Brave, but if I recall correctly; It was mostly due to the internal ad network (Which can be disabled) & token distribution that came along with Brave.

For anyone saying they trust Firefox the most, you mayswell migrate to Brave as it was created by the Co-Founder of Firefox Brendan Eich; Who is actually also the guy who created JavaScript.

As someone who is security focused, literally my job; Google is light years ahead of DDG, and is honestly painful to use at this point still. Also finding it hilarous that we are all worried about giving Google our data, while likely using a Windows 10 PC.
Thanks, will look into that a but further.
What's your opinion on Firefox vs Brave? You use one out of convenience of for privacy reasons too?

You're right on W10, sadly Linux is not really a viable alternative unless you enjoy fiddling everywhere all the time. The harsh truth is that privacy is useless without usability, that's how Whatsapp is still king on the mobile space.
 

nkarafo

Member
Is it better than Firefox?

I tried switching over to that recently, and performance was really bad compared to Chrome. It was incredibly noticeable on YouTube and Twitch. So many stutters, sadly.
Which platform?

I use both on Windows and i see absolutely no difference in performance.
 

Mistake

Member
I compared DDG with google periodically the last four years, and it was obvious that google was completely biased. I only use it now when searching for images
 

manfestival

Member
I considered using duck duck go for sometime but then I always end up stuck on google since certain companies that I work with only use Chrome browsers.

How is the feature set for DDG and is there adblock/ublock on there? Only other extension I might use it Honey but that is kinda rare anyways
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
I just wish Duck Duck Go wasn't called Duck Duck Go so we could actually get an alternative verb to "just google it".
I think most say “search” for it.
I’m familiar with google products like gmail, google drive and YouTube but I’ll give duck duck go a shot through joe’s recommendation.
happy homer simpson GIF
 
Thanks, will look into that a but further.
What's your opinion on Firefox vs Brave? You use one out of convenience of for privacy reasons too?

You're right on W10, sadly Linux is not really a viable alternative unless you enjoy fiddling everywhere all the time. The harsh truth is that privacy is useless without usability, that's how Whatsapp is still king on the mobile space.
Currently I use Brave 99% of the time, and will use Firefox if something isn't working correctly on Brave. Brave does have UI issues sometimes due to blocking a lot of cookies, trackers, and ads but sometimes disabling "Brave Shield" doesn't even make the website function properly. With that being said, I've been using Brave for a bit more than two years and majority of the user interface bugs have been fixed. I noticed the issue long ago and would only use Firefox when on tradingview as the charts wouldn't scale properly on Brave.

Privacy was the major push for me to switch to Brave, not to mention earning BAT while browsing. Brave is by far the fastest browser I have used as well.

You're quite right, windows 10 is definitely needed especially if you are playing AAA games; With that said, I'm currently writing this post while using Ubuntu. Linux has come a long way over the last few years with ease of use, but you're 100% right; Sometimes things just don't work as expected and it takes some serious effort to get things running, where on Windows 10 it would have worked instantly.
 

TTOOLL

Member
Currently I use Brave 99% of the time, and will use Firefox if something isn't working correctly on Brave. Brave does have UI issues sometimes due to blocking a lot of cookies, trackers, and ads but sometimes disabling "Brave Shield" doesn't even make the website function properly. With that being said, I've been using Brave for a bit more than two years and majority of the user interface bugs have been fixed. I noticed the issue long ago and would only use Firefox when on tradingview as the charts wouldn't scale properly on Brave.

Privacy was the major push for me to switch to Brave, not to mention earning BAT while browsing. Brave is by far the fastest browser I have used as well.

You're quite right, windows 10 is definitely needed especially if you are playing AAA games; With that said, I'm currently writing this post while using Ubuntu. Linux has come a long way over the last few years with ease of use, but you're 100% right; Sometimes things just don't work as expected and it takes some serious effort to get things running, where on Windows 10 it would have worked instantly.

What's a good partition size just for a Linux distro? I don't have a lot of space in my ssd. Also, what's the distro to go in terms of compatibility in your opinion.
 
What's a good partition size just for a Linux distro? I don't have a lot of space in my ssd. Also, what's the distro to go in terms of compatibility in your opinion.
If you are just looking to test Linux out, and your PC supports virtualization (which it likely does if you purchased or built it within the last 8~ years) I would highly recommend this setup for testing:

1. Download Virtual Box; This is a free virtual machine platform created by oracle and can be found here: https://www.virtualbox.org/
2. Download latest version of LTS (Long term support) Ubuntu here; https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
3. Create a Ubuntu virtual machine with virtual box, quite straight forward if you are a bit tech savvy

If you can't figure out Virtual Box feel free to reply back, but their is also tons of guides online about how to use Virtual Box.

Also, if really do want to partition your hard drive for dual boot Ubuntu for testing hardware capability you shouldn't need more than 50~ GB for the entire install/root partition. Also FYI, if your PC has enough guts you can also pass through for GPU or whatever into your virtual machine instead of running a dual boot system
 

TTOOLL

Member
If you are just looking to test Linux out, and your PC supports virtualization (which it likely does if you purchased or built it within the last 8~ years) I would highly recommend this setup for testing:

1. Download Virtual Box; This is a free virtual machine platform created by oracle and can be found here: https://www.virtualbox.org/
2. Download latest version of LTS (Long term support) Ubuntu here; https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
3. Create a Ubuntu virtual machine with virtual box, quite straight forward if you are a bit tech savvy

If you can't figure out Virtual Box feel free to reply back, but their is also tons of guides online about how to use Virtual Box.

Also, if really do want to partition your hard drive for dual boot Ubuntu for testing hardware capability you shouldn't need more than 50~ GB for the entire install/root partition. Also FYI, if your PC has enough guts you can also pass through for GPU or whatever into your virtual machine instead of running a dual boot system
I’ve had some experience with dual boot in the past and I had some trouble with Grub (I think this is the name). Maybe a VM would be nice. I have a laptop with a Ryzen 7 and 8gigs of ram.
 
I’ve had some experience with dual boot in the past and I had some trouble with Grub (I think this is the name). Maybe a VM would be nice. I have a laptop with a Ryzen 7 and 8gigs of ram.
You can run Ubuntu desktop with giving your VM like 2 cores and 4GB of RAM and it should run more than fine enough for testing the interface :) GRUB can be tricky with dual boots, setting up a virtual machine is most definitely the easier route and not such a commitment because if you hate it you can just delete the VM and its gone!
 

Jeeves

Member
Using Firefox with DDG as the search engine default, and tricked out with all sorts of privacy extensions and about:config tweaks.

Been thinking about switching to Protonmail but I'm not there yet.
 

Miles708

Member
I don't use any google apps and always use private browsing so I think I'm okay.
That depends on your browser. Chrome was fined by the European commission because it tracked your activity even in private mode. It gets even worse if you're logged in your Google account (for example your gmail account).

I don't think it's feasible to de-google your life 100%, but it's sensible to avoid using their products as much as possible.
 

llien

Member
Switched to DDG more than a year ago (after some BS controversy, don't even remember which one, likely that autistic guy's memo firring)

Google of course beats it at more nuanced searches (besides them being more advanced at it, they also use what they know about you to find what you might look at,), but 90%+ of time DDG is more than adequate.

I try google only if DDG didn't find what I wanted.

Bing is surprisingly beats google at times, at image related stuff in particular.
 

betrayal

Banned
Thanks for the reminder. Wanted to get away from Chrome/Google sooner, but somehow I always forgot. Can't see any major drawbacks so far either. Looks good!
 
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