Internet Privacy and Google Tracking Got You Down? Try Using DuckDuckGo Instead

Culture

Google serves over 1 billion searches per day. Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, as well as other search engines, all make their money by selling your information to advertisers. That's a lot of money. So, what options are available to a person who is concerned with their online privacy?

DuckDuckGo is a free, privacy-centric search engine that doesn't store search history or send click information to sites accessed from its search pages. It's a clean, fast search site that doesn't provide targeted advertising. ZDNet says: "DuckDuckGo does not store your data and it does not send your search terms to any of the sites you visited for that search term. That means it does not filter the results based on the information you have previously given it. You get the same results as everyone else does when searching for a page."

Sure, having your preferences saved across the huge range of Google products can be handy. But sometimes, it's easy to forget that Google makes its money by selling YOU to its customers. Products like Google AdWords and AdSense are based on recording your location, search history, clicks, views, and other personal information, and selling that to whomever wants it.

Maybe you don't mind Google knowing how much time you spend looking at LOLcats or surfing porn, but for those frustrated with continual invasion of privacy, perhaps DuckDuckGo is for you.

DuckDuckGo does not store your data and it does not send your search terms to any of the sites you visited for that search term. That means it does not filter the results based on the information you have previously given it. You get the same results as everyone else does when searching for a page.