Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

searchenginejournal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 233 posts

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#171

Post by bitL »

nunobrito wrote: post #121

DuckDuckGo is only private if you trust their word. Over the years they continue to refuse access for a trusted third-party auditor to review their infrastructure and validate (or not) their claims of privacy. The preference of Android to place DDG in Europe (31 out of 31 countries) is strange when considering privacy as argument. Then is placed this "info.com" as second option on all European countries (31 out of 31…

Does it matter though? If you want some semblance of privacy, use VPN + Tor while searching anything, and make sure no personally identifiable information goes through it. Every company has to adhere to its local law, so expecting privacy is naive.

DDG's advantage is much less bloat and almost as good results as Google (in some areas arguably better), while not feeding their personalized ad machine. Qwant is worth trying as well.

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#172

Post by AdamSC1 »

OrgNet wrote: post #33

I've been using DDG for about 2 years almost exclusively, but in the last month, quality appears to have degraded a lot? I actually switched back to Google last week, unfortunately.

There won't have been any major change in the past few months that would have negatively impacted your search results.

If you have any specific examples you can always reach out via the feedback box or to staff directly :)

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#173

Post by klntsky »

nunobrito wrote: post #121

DuckDuckGo is only private if you trust their word. Over the years they continue to refuse access for a trusted third-party auditor to review their infrastructure and validate (or not) their claims of privacy. The preference of Android to place DDG in Europe (31 out of 31 countries) is strange when considering privacy as argument. Then is placed this "info.com" as second option on all European countries (31 out of 31…

> a search engine that deserves our preference ... because it is built and hosted in Europe

Why not the opposite? It is easier for the government to seize your data if the service is under their jurisdiction.

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#175

Post by raverbashing »

adgasf wrote: post #169
raverbashing wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to refuse access for a trusted third-party auditor to review their infrastructure and validate (or not) their claims of privacy. Which company would accept (and pay for that) given there's no legal requirement for it? Here's a better test: DDG sets exactly one cookie in my browser, with a short value (not unique enough to track anything). Makes me trust them more than some BS popup saying "we care about your privac…

A short cookie with a browser fingerprint will be enough for tracking.

Cool, are they calling APIs that give fingerprinting data? Using tracking images?

Because unless you have evidence they're abusing their data collection (as, you know, a lot of websites do) I'm not buying the FUD.

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#176

Post by [deleted] »

dantondwa wrote: post #120

I can't recommend DDG to friends in Europe until they fix their quick actions and translate them in other languages. It's not acceptable that to look for the weather in Rome I have to write "weather Rome" because "meteo Roma" doesn't bring the quick action up. Also, the local results are very bad, unfortunately.

[deleted]

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#177

Post by DavideNL »

nunobrito wrote: post #133
Accacin wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not doubting you, but do you have any sources for your claims? I will use Qwant in the future but at the minute it's not suitable (IMO) for daily usage. Ecosia seems like a great idea, but these kind of 'Search and earn' sites have always seemed like a scam to me and I can't find any reason to trust Ecosia over DDG.

I'm a software auditor in Europe (per times consulting the European commission itself), mostly for open source licenses but also for cybersec and privacy matters. This topic with DDG is recurring since years. You cannot verify the infrastructure, it is not hosted on EU-bounded servers and they have been asked for cooperation. Nothing moved as far I follow. With Ecosia you are right. The point is that Ecosia accountab…

What do you think about Startpage?

And, which European search engine would you recommend?

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#178

Post by yodsanklai »

nunobrito wrote: post #121

DuckDuckGo is only private if you trust their word. Over the years they continue to refuse access for a trusted third-party auditor to review their infrastructure and validate (or not) their claims of privacy. The preference of Android to place DDG in Europe (31 out of 31 countries) is strange when considering privacy as argument. Then is placed this "info.com" as second option on all European countries (31 out of 31…

> that is http://qwant.com

Plenty of pictures and distracting news on the front page.

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#179

Post by johnofthesea »

nunobrito wrote: post #121

DuckDuckGo is only private if you trust their word. Over the years they continue to refuse access for a trusted third-party auditor to review their infrastructure and validate (or not) their claims of privacy. The preference of Android to place DDG in Europe (31 out of 31 countries) is strange when considering privacy as argument. Then is placed this "info.com" as second option on all European countries (31 out of 31…

as far as I know https://swisscows.com is also hosted in Europe

Re: DuckDuckGo Is Now a Default Search Engine Option on Android in the EU

#180

Post by londons_explore »

fiblye wrote: post #165
londons_explore wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually when people have this concern, it's because the page they are looking for does not exist . I'd like to see examples where you do a search looking for a specific page, either with or without verbatim or double-quotes, and then find it via some other query. Sure, it happens, but it's very rare.

>it's because the page they are looking for does not exist. I could see that argument holding water if other search engines didn't give me precisely what I searched for. Google just simply tries to be smart and assume I'm looking for something other than what I input, while completely ignoring my input and replacing it entirely.

Give a few examples of it.

Theres a good chance whatever page you were after had a robots.txt excluding googlebot.

Post reply on HN