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DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

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Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#351
post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ignoring the genuinely huger issue of the amount of info and mining that google By using DuckDuckGo you're doing the opposite of ignoring privacy issues in Google products. And hence the reaction. Why use DDG at all, if they're not safely protecting your private data 100%?

Because some protection is better than no protection Why use a condom which doesn't protect you 100%?

Or why wear a motorcycle helmet since there's still a chance you'll sustain a serious head injury and die if you crash? Like you, I find the extremity of the GP's point of view lacking in wisdom.

Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#354
post #340

Hi all, Founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo here. I’m literally just waking up and reading the comments here. I’m new to this issue and happy to commit us to move to doing this locally in the browser and will have us move on that ASAP. That said, I want to be clear that we did not and have not collected any personal information here. As other staff have referenced, our services are encrypted and throw away PII like IP addr…

Thank you, this is the response people here want to hear.

And if this gets fixed in a reasonable timeframe, this is just one of those "everyone makes a mistake one in a while"-things, no big deal.

Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#355

Ubiquity did the same thing with their routers. They couldn’t understand why users had such a problem with their phone home feature that was on by default when the purpose of it was to ultimately “improve” the user experience. I didn’t buy their router as a result. I also removed kaspersky from my computer because I didn’t like their phone home feature. Turns out they were selling my data despite holding my trust as…

wow, didn't know that, thnx for the heads up.

Time to check what my ubiquity router is up to once I get home from work.

Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#356
post #340

Hi all, Founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo here. I’m literally just waking up and reading the comments here. I’m new to this issue and happy to commit us to move to doing this locally in the browser and will have us move on that ASAP. That said, I want to be clear that we did not and have not collected any personal information here. As other staff have referenced, our services are encrypted and throw away PII like IP addr…

Thank you, this is the response people here want to hear. And if this gets fixed in a reasonable timeframe, this is just one of those "everyone makes a mistake one in a while"-things, no big deal.

If anything, it's much better than 'no big deal'. It's "We made this design decision, thought you would like it -- we've learnt, changed, and will avoid it later".

Can you imagine Google doing something similar? Heck, they're just about to throw the Android rooting community under a hardware-attestation DRM-filled bus.

Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#357
post #340

Hi all, Founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo here. I’m literally just waking up and reading the comments here. I’m new to this issue and happy to commit us to move to doing this locally in the browser and will have us move on that ASAP. That said, I want to be clear that we did not and have not collected any personal information here. As other staff have referenced, our services are encrypted and throw away PII like IP addr…

Thank you Gabriel. This was what I expected.

Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#358

There's an interesting disease showing up here in the responses. I accept DDG's statement that this is about a favicon and that they "do not collect or share any personal information", and despite that, I also agree with others that DDG should be on the safe side and just stop doing this small thing. It's just the safer and more moral thing to do (So DDG, as many are suggesting, plz stop doing it. Today is good). But…

I think what angered people was actually that a company saying to hold privacy high was simply refusing to change something after a mistake was pointed out and instead kept on defending it with a technical argument, which makes no sense at all. The reaction would have been actually a lot different if someone from the company admitted the mistake and promised it will be changed. Update: Gabriel Weinberg has promised t…

[deleted]

Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#359

Speaking of leaks, I never understood why people use DDG's bangs. By using bangs you're sending your search history to DDG even when using search engines that aren't DDG.

but.. that is obvious?!?

If I don't want ddg to know what I google, ofc I won't do it by typing in !g in ddg...

I actually use bang functions because I want to help ddg out by informing them when I'm unhappy with the results I got from them.

Re: DuckDuckGo browser seemingly sends domains a user visits to DDG servers

#360
post #52

DuckDuckGo staff here. As mentioned in the linked page, the purpose of the request is to retrieve a website's favicon so that it can be displayed in certain places within the app or on the results page. We use an internal favicon service because it can be complicated to locate a favicon for a website. They can be stored in a variety of locations and in a variety of formats. The service understands these edge cases an…

I’m very disappointed in how you guys responded to this. As a privacy focused company I would not have expected an answer that sounds like it came from a data collecting company like Google. I just switched to DDG browser a week ago and will now be looking for a new browser now. I hope you know this is not an appropriate response to the situation. Especially because all you guys do is preach about how much you protec…

Lost lost lost.

I'ts not like we couldn't have predicted this disaster.

One more reason to never trust a companies "word". Show me the code.

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