Is DuckDuckGo Safe? A Comprehensive Guide

July 13, 2021 By Nick Anderson No Comments 8 minutes

DuckDuckGo is a search engine and browser company known for its privacy-focused approach. Despite its user security-centered aims, is DuckDuckGo safe? With other search engines and browsers, like Google, reigning supreme, safety speculations keep various users concerned about switching to a better alternative.

In this article, we’ll carry a DuckDuckGo review, covering queries like, “Why DuckDuckGo is bad?” and a final verdict on “Is duck duck go legit.” Keep reading to find out all!

Note: While DuckDuckGo attracts massive popularity for not saving users’ personal information, it will still have access to their IP addresses.

For this, we recommend using a reliable VPN, like FastestVPN, when browsing the web. Connecting to the VPN provides unmatched digital privacy protection, thanks to the military-grade AES 256-bit encryption and other premium features.

Is DuckDuckGo Safe?

Yes, DuckDuckGo is safe due to the search engine’s policy of zero data collection or tracking your browsing activities for targeted ads. And this contravenes with other top search engines.

This browser and search engine don’t use delish-looking sneaky third-party cookies or other third-party tools to collect your personal information and facilitate marketing campaigns. However, it only collects the required data to facilitate its operations. But despite these alluring features, there are potential drawbacks, too. What is the downside of DuckDuckGo?

But here’s why DuckDuckGo is bad. Entering the cyber world, you’re always one step away from a potential cyber attack. While DuckDuckGo offers elevated security features, cyber threats are still present. Although malicious sites are always filtered out of the search results, there’s no guaranteed security from the black hats.

If you land on any of the malicious pages, you may unintentionally install malware on your device. Getting rid of malware or viruses is nothing less than a nightmare. To avoid falling victim, you must use FastestVPN. Connecting to the VPN lets you leverage all the premium features, ensuring elevated digital security.

5 Advocating Factors: Can DuckDuckGo Be Trusted?

WordStream says over 15 million Americans use DuckDuckGo for their online searches, using it on computers and phones. With millions of users, even Apple planned to carry an agreement with DuckDuckGo to make it the default search browser. However, neither company reached an agreement.

With Apple being popular for its primary focus on data security, considering DuckDuckGo as its default browser definitely raises the green flag for the search engine and answers, “is duck duck go legit.” Here are 5 other factors that advocate for “Is DuckDuckGo safe”:

1. No Data Collection

With the majority accustomed to popular search engines collecting personal data, an emerging option with zero data collection policies can seem heaven-dropped. The latter is the case with DuckDuckGo.

This search engine sends all your search requests/queries from the server to the webpage. Simply put, instead of the data taking the shorter route, it takes the longer and safer one without affecting the speed. Also, all data delivered to users employs end-to-end data encryption.

2. Minimal Data Usage

DuckDuckGo asserts its limited data collection policy, stating that the search engine only collects data required for a smooth operation or request fulfillment. DuckDuckGo cannot comply with third-party requests for search or browsing histories because it doesn’t log this information. Once the data is no longer necessary, and there’s no legal requirement to keep it, the information is deleted.

3.  Transparent Data Practices

While other search engines also keep data transparency, it’s still a lot to wrap the head around, leading to ignoring the policy copy. However, DuckDuckGo takes a step further with its data transparency policies.

Using DuckDuckGo, your device forwards specific information for a seamless user experience with the search engine. The company also clarified that the information is temporarily used for smooth content delivery. Meanwhile, you’re safe from the potential dangers of IP leaks since the search engine strictly adheres to zero IP address sharing with any visited site.

DuckDuckGo also offers an email protection feature that only requires essential information. Moreover, users always get specific data explaining how their data will be used.

4. No Tracking Cookies

DuckDuckGo enables the customization of search settings via anonymous storage cookies. You can also adjust all search settings via anonymous URL parameters. At times, the platform can use the browser’s storage for anonymous setting changes or your device’s local storage for anonymous display settings. However, the company asserts on no information storage that can potentially lead to search identification.

5. No Third-Party Sharing

DuckDuckGo’s privacy policy states that they neither save nor share your browsing history and have never sold personal information. And, the company reigns for information protection than its competitors.

To advocate for “Is DuckDuckGo safe,” it features a Global Privacy Control (GPC). Through this, the search engine automatically communicates to sites about not sharing or selling your personal information.

3 Reasons Why DuckDuckGo Is Bad for Many Users

According to Backlinko, DuckDuckGo is the second most popular search engine on mobile devices in the US. Globally, it has a 0.54% share of the search engine market, while in the US, its market share is 1.96%.

Despite its popularity for obvious reasons, there are a few reasons why DuckDuckGo is bad for a few users. Here are the contributing reasons to this DuckDuckGo review:

1. Malware Threats

This is the first reason why DuckDuckGo is bad. While the search engine gains popularity for its advanced data protection policies, unintentional malware installation might be unavoidable. Although DuckDuckGo filters out malicious sites or content accessibility, cyber threats are still present. As a solution, it’s best to use FastestVPN for advanced data protection.

2. IP Address Vulnerability

While DuckDuckGo takes measures to keep your IP address hidden from third parties online, it cannot conceal it from your ISP. All data exchanged between your device and the internet must pass through your device’s IP address so the search engine cannot stop internet providers from knowing you’re using it. However, DuckDuckGo ensures that your ISP can only see that you’re connecting to the search engine, not your search queries.

3. Lack of Site Data Protection

Being a search engine, DuckDuckGo’s privacy protection ends when you access a site, and this is primarily why DuckDuckGo is bad. Once you’re on a specific website, their policies apply to your personal data collection. The search engine itself can be great for privacy protection and ensuring the same level of safety when online, so using FastestVPN will be your best help.

Google vs DuckDuckGo – Why use DuckDuckGo instead of Google?

Google’s data collection policies never get frowned upon; using DuckDuckGo will definitely bring a change of perspectives. While the latter reigns supreme for most privacy-conscious users, this DuckDuckGo review between Google vs DuckDuckGo will help you decide the better option:

Here’s a detailed Google and DuckDuckGo review of the summary mentioned above:

1. Privacy Protection

As per the DuckDuckGo review, it positions itself as the search engine choice for users seeking to protect their privacy. They have developed a straightforward and transparent privacy policy, ensuring clarity.

DuckDuckGo does not track your search history or store your IP address and user information. In contrast to Google, DuckDuckGo does not share or store your search queries with advertisers, so you won’t be targeted based on your searches.

2. Varying Search Results

Both Google and DuckDuckGo operate similarly, using a model common to most search engines, combining their own web crawlers with data from numerous sources. However, when you click on a search result in Google, it sends your specific search term to the website you visit. DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, refers to this as “search leakage” and does not practice it.

3. Search Engine Capability

Not everyone’s writing another version of the Sapiens or the Clash of Civilizations. The majority of the search results are about random day-to-day topics. Both search engines provide quite similar responses to basic queries. The only difference is the content navigation categorization.

Final Verdict

DuckDuckGo is a holy grail search engine for anyone intending to go further with privacy protection. It’s believed to be one of the top solutions available because of its advanced data protection and enhanced transparency policies. As a final verdict, it’s definitely worth giving a shot. To eliminate the limitations of the DuckDuckGo review, it’s best to connect to FastestVPN.

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