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DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

torrentfreak.com

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Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#101

Post by throwawaybutwhy »

zagrebian wrote: post #87
derevaunseraun wrote: post #73

Question: does anyone actually know what DDG does with user data? Like they market themselves as a "privacy respecting" search engine, but how much of this is truth? I'd imagine there's good money in convincing people they have privacy because then they'll provide more interesting data. Has the company ever been audited? Why should they be trusted to not compromise user privacy? Imo at least Google is honest: you kno…

If Duck really collects user data, the moment this is found out, they’re dead, so for that reason alone, they probably don’t do it. The alternative is that they’re betting everything on nobody ever finding out which sounds crazy.

A certain philosopher named Occam would suggest that the simplest explanation for nobody finding out so far is that it is three-letter agencies who might be the ultimate funders and data buyers.

Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#103

Post by derevaunseraun »

charcircuit wrote: post #99
derevaunseraun wrote: post #73

Question: does anyone actually know what DDG does with user data? Like they market themselves as a "privacy respecting" search engine, but how much of this is truth? I'd imagine there's good money in convincing people they have privacy because then they'll provide more interesting data. Has the company ever been audited? Why should they be trusted to not compromise user privacy? Imo at least Google is honest: you kno…

>you know when you use their products as intended you have no privacy This isn't true. Google's privacy policy is not lax as you suggest it is.

Could you clarify a bit? If you are logged in they store almost everything, as is evidenced by Google takeout.

Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#104

Post by kevinh »

throwawaybutwhy wrote: post #101
zagrebian wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Duck really collects user data, the moment this is found out, they’re dead, so for that reason alone, they probably don’t do it. The alternative is that they’re betting everything on nobody ever finding out which sounds crazy.

A certain philosopher named Occam would suggest that the simplest explanation for nobody finding out so far is that it is three-letter agencies who might be the ultimate funders and data buyers.

Surely the simplest explanation would be that no one has found out because they don't actually collect the data.

Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#105

Post by jstanley »

throwawaybutwhy wrote: post #101
zagrebian wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Duck really collects user data, the moment this is found out, they’re dead, so for that reason alone, they probably don’t do it. The alternative is that they’re betting everything on nobody ever finding out which sounds crazy.

A certain philosopher named Occam would suggest that the simplest explanation for nobody finding out so far is that it is three-letter agencies who might be the ultimate funders and data buyers.

Is that really the simplest explanation?

Or is the simplest explanation that they're not lying and they do what they say they do?

Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#106

Post by t0bia_s »

zagrebian wrote: post #87
derevaunseraun wrote: post #73

Question: does anyone actually know what DDG does with user data? Like they market themselves as a "privacy respecting" search engine, but how much of this is truth? I'd imagine there's good money in convincing people they have privacy because then they'll provide more interesting data. Has the company ever been audited? Why should they be trusted to not compromise user privacy? Imo at least Google is honest: you kno…

If Duck really collects user data, the moment this is found out, they’re dead, so for that reason alone, they probably don’t do it. The alternative is that they’re betting everything on nobody ever finding out which sounds crazy.

There are so many issues with DDG, but nobody cares [1]. Idea of having privacy focused search engine is strong. Then use kagi or searX.

[1] https://lemmy.ml/post/31321

Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#107

Post by derevaunseraun »

zagrebian wrote: post #87
derevaunseraun wrote: post #73

Question: does anyone actually know what DDG does with user data? Like they market themselves as a "privacy respecting" search engine, but how much of this is truth? I'd imagine there's good money in convincing people they have privacy because then they'll provide more interesting data. Has the company ever been audited? Why should they be trusted to not compromise user privacy? Imo at least Google is honest: you kno…

If Duck really collects user data, the moment this is found out, they’re dead, so for that reason alone, they probably don’t do it. The alternative is that they’re betting everything on nobody ever finding out which sounds crazy.

When I read about the founder and their privacy policy, I get the impression that this is something they care about.

At the same time, as far as I know there has been no independent audit. Considering they made over 100 million in 2020, they clearly have the finances to fund an independent audit. It would also improve their reputation and clear up some of the uncertainty about their collection of user data in practice

Even better (but more unlikely): they could open source the search engine so we all can audit them.

Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#109

Post by userbinator »

babypuncher wrote: post #25
Apreche wrote: post #13

Someone should make a search engine that only indexes sites that Google and DuckDuckgo do not index. It would serve sort of the same purpose as like, lists of banned books.

I appreciate the sentiment but such an index would be 99.9% spam, malware, and phishing.

In the eyes of some of those in power, youtube-dl is "malware".

Re: DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results

#110

Post by brewdad »

zionic wrote: post #95
zodzedzi wrote: post #69

I use DDG as my default search engine, along with NoScript in the browser. Often when I visit a new website, I peruse the (long) list of domains that the site is trying to pull javascripts from. I keep most of those source sites in UNTRUSTED status (including some of the big names in search/ads/etc). But I've always had DDG in the TRUSTED category because I had only seen its javascript before on the main DDG website.…

> So now I was wondering if DDG is getting into the tracking business Anecdotal of course, but I've been seeing more and more DDG billboards. Those things aren't cheap, and my trust in them has declined the more I see them advertise in the traditional market.

So where does one from here for everyday search? Google is out. Bing has many of the same problems as Google. Startpage blocks my VPN. Brave has always felt just a little "off" to me, but maybe they're worth a try. Any others I've missed that are worth looking into?
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