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DuckDuckGo for Mac

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Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#21

Post by InCityDreams »

nerdjon wrote: post #8
rasengan wrote: post #4

DDG has been recently under attack due to tampering of search results [1]. Hope they don’t involve politics in their browser! [1] https://www.vox.com/recode/22981115/duckduckgo-free-speech-p...

Removing misinformation from Russia is a strange one to attack them for... considering the Russian invasion is about as non partisan of an issue (in the US at least) as I have seen in a long time. Regardless, search engines have to rank content somehow. We need to stop throwing around "politics" when something doesn't fit your particular narrative.

Or yours? And, who is 'we'? And why is "politics" in quotes?

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#22

Post by verisimi »

Is anyone still using DDG after they stated that they will be editing results re the Ukraine war? This was a clear statement that they not letting the algorithm do the talking - they are taking a parental role and deciding what we can and cannot see.

I've switched to presearch - https://engine.presearch.org/ - which I have to say I'm enjoying.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#23

Post by core-utility »

nerdjon wrote: post #9
daniel_iversen wrote: post #2

Their selling points seem to be: - DuckDuckGo for Mac gives you privacy by default - DuckDuckGo for Mac is really fast! - DuckDuckGo for Mac is built for security. .. isn't that just (almost/good enough) Safari these days? Plus with Safari you typically get better battery life. And Apple's monetisation model makes me feel like they'll treat my privacy even better than a search engine. The only reason why sometimes I…

This is how I feel. Safari can still do a lot and I hope they continue to make it more private (no reason to believe they won't). But on Mac I stick with Safari not only because of the reasons you stated, but also because of iCloud (yes I know this breaks privacy but I trust Apple... mostly). I use Brave though on my Windows PC but I may switch too DDG, or at least give it a shot.

> but I trust Apple... mostly

This for me is a big part of privacy. It's not about making sure nobody has my data, that's a near-impossible task and never ending. But if I can consolidate and limit who has my data to entities I trust slightly more than others, it's a win.

Example, using a credit card comes with the inherent idea that you can be tracked. Your bank obviously tracks you and knows everything about you, Visa sees it all as using their network, and the third and most important, every merchant/vendor you visit can now track your purchase patterns and tie that with other information about you. Using Apple Pay, I'm giving Apple my purchase history at the benefit of having a randomized number for each transaction that the hundreds/thousands of vendors I shop at can't track me by.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#24

Post by ezfe »

nicoburns wrote: post #13
daniel_iversen wrote: post #2

Their selling points seem to be: - DuckDuckGo for Mac gives you privacy by default - DuckDuckGo for Mac is really fast! - DuckDuckGo for Mac is built for security. .. isn't that just (almost/good enough) Safari these days? Plus with Safari you typically get better battery life. And Apple's monetisation model makes me feel like they'll treat my privacy even better than a search engine. The only reason why sometimes I…

Ad blocking support in Safari isn't great. A lot of the best extensions are a paid subscription, and the free ones seem to be noticeably worse the uBlock Origin.

Wipr is a one time fee of just a couple dollars, and it receives pretty consistent updates.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#25

Post by shippintoboston »

Extension support will be crucial for people to jump over, including me from Firefox.

I use Bitwarden for password management and I'm not really interested in porting that over to Duck.

Safari-like performance with extension support is essentially my endgame browser on Mac. Although it makes me uneasy that the entire browser is built on Apple's api's, it's seems like they will be at their mercy for whatever changes are made in the future.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#26

Post by iruoy »

weinzierl wrote: post #5

I'm using DuckDuckGo almost exclusively[1] for years now and I'm pretty happy with it. I don't see much benefit in their browser though. I think their "Privacy Grade" , which is shown very prominently in the browser UI, is more harm than help. It is much too strict and rating everything down is counter to their intention. Is a B site still OK? What about a C, or. B+? If nothing is A, this is just confusing to the use…

> Why has a perfectly legit site like Wikipedia only a B rating?

https://tosdr.org/en/service/265

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#27

Post by core-utility »

> Download the DuckDuckGo mobile app (or update to the latest version)

I must say, this is a great method of marketing. I've never been super interested in trying the DDG mobile app, but the MacOS option caught my eye. I've now downloaded the app simply to sign up for the desktop option.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#28

Post by em500 »

daniel_iversen wrote: post #2

Their selling points seem to be: - DuckDuckGo for Mac gives you privacy by default - DuckDuckGo for Mac is really fast! - DuckDuckGo for Mac is built for security. .. isn't that just (almost/good enough) Safari these days? Plus with Safari you typically get better battery life. And Apple's monetisation model makes me feel like they'll treat my privacy even better than a search engine. The only reason why sometimes I…

The main reason I don't use Safari on the Mac is that all extensions (including ad-blockers) require an AppleID (because they have to come from the Apple App store), and I don't want to be forced to tie my laptop to any online account.

If the DDG browser has as built-in good-enough ad-browser, I'll probably try it. Though I doubt it has any practical advantages over Firefox/Edge + uBlock Origin, which I'm using now.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#29

Post by nerdjon »

core-utility wrote: post #23
nerdjon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how I feel. Safari can still do a lot and I hope they continue to make it more private (no reason to believe they won't). But on Mac I stick with Safari not only because of the reasons you stated, but also because of iCloud (yes I know this breaks privacy but I trust Apple... mostly). I use Brave though on my Windows PC but I may switch too DDG, or at least give it a shot.

> but I trust Apple... mostly This for me is a big part of privacy. It's not about making sure nobody has my data, that's a near-impossible task and never ending. But if I can consolidate and limit who has my data to entities I trust slightly more than others, it's a win. Example, using a credit card comes with the inherent idea that you can be tracked. Your bank obviously tracks you and knows everything about you, V…

What is interesting is for me, I kinda take the opposite approach.

Kinda ... A lot of my information has been consolidated to Apple. I am not naive enough to trust them completely. But I feel like I have made a conscious choice of balancing privacy concerns with Apple (and their business practices for the use of that data) and the convenience of features.

But in my opinion one of my biggest issue I have with companies like Facebook and Google is that consolidation. I would rather the companies only know bits (realistically none but considering both companies allow others to consent on my behalf... there isn't much I can do) instead of an entire pictures.

Now I know that many of these companies sell data in the background. But I guess I have some weird level of... comfort knowing that they have to do extra work to piece the data about me together.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac

#30

Post by nerdjon »

InCityDreams wrote: post #21
nerdjon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Removing misinformation from Russia is a strange one to attack them for... considering the Russian invasion is about as non partisan of an issue (in the US at least) as I have seen in a long time. Regardless, search engines have to rank content somehow. We need to stop throwing around "politics" when something doesn't fit your particular narrative.

Or yours? And, who is 'we'? And why is "politics" in quotes?

Claiming "politics" as a reason a company should not take a stance on something has turned into a blanket statement used largely for attacks on Human Rights.

We are seeing it here with DDG, Disney, and many others in the last several years.

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