You were not aware that DuckDuckGo is a search engine? Well, now you know. Since its founding in 2008, DuckDuckGo has made it its mission to develop a search engine that does not store or share personal data, quite unlike Google. Google’s business model is based less on data protection and more on personalised advertising. Without the storage of personal data, Google would virtually lose the air it breathes. However, Google is still the most used search engine, and there are reasons for that. Google does have one weakness, however, and that is data protection. In the USA, Google is once again being sued in relation to this. This time it is about the storage of personal data when surfing in so-called “incognito mode”. DuckDuckGo is attacking Google’s “data protection” weakness.
Below, we highlight 5 reasons why you should give up using Google and try using DuckDuckGo instead.
5 Reasons: DuckDuckGo vs Google
1. Google is free but finances itself through personalised advertising based on tracking.
According to its privacy policy, Google stores your activities. This may include your search queries, purchasing activity and data about who you communicate with or share content with.
Google can use this data to create a comprehensive profile and show you personalised advertising. This may be useful for you, as you don’t have to search for the latest deals yourself. In the long run, however, it can also be annoying and/or possibly give you a feeling of being “followed”. DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, says it does not store any of your personal data and does not use personalised advertising. However, this does not mean that DuckDuckGo does not use advertising at all. Instead, DuckDuckGo takes a more privacy-friendly approach in this regard. DuckDuckGo shows you ads according to your search terms and not based on you as a person. So if you are looking for a TV, when you use DuckDuckGo, you will be shown ads for TV’s etc. and not ads for products you last bought or searched for.
2. Google shows you the most relevant search results for you but filters them for you.
When you Google something, you will usually be quickly satisfied with the search results. You will probably find what you are looking for on at least the first three pages of the search results. This is due, among other things, to the search algorithm and the fact that Google knows your search queries and thus suggests search results that match your interests and/or views etc. On the one hand, this is again advantageous because you don’t have to waste a lot of time searching. On the other hand, however, it can also be a disadvantage because you then live in a kind of “Google filter bubble”. Google will tend to show you fewer search results that do not match your interests and/or views. This can lead, for example, to information about other political or socially critical views only being displayed far down in the search results. However, you may not even become aware of these because you have already found them on the first pages. DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, does not display personalised advertising or search results, which is due to the fact that it does not store your personal data.
3. Google offers “incognito mode” when surfing, but it is not entirely as private as it sounds.
Perhaps you have already tried out Google’s incognito mode? In principle, incognito mode, in which, among other things, your browsing history is not saved, is not a bad idea. Especially if you use your laptop with several people, for example, it ensures that you can have a little privacy when surfing. However, the incognito mode does not mean that Google does not store any personal data about you and that you surf completely unrecognised. Even when using incognito mode, Google points out that, among other things, your activities remain visible to your employers, etc. Furthermore, Google also points out that cookies from third-party providers are stored if you have given your consent to this. However, as already mentioned initially, Google is being sued due to alleged unlawful data storage when using the incognito mode (Brown et al. v. Google LLC et al. ref. 5:20-cv-03664-LHK). Among other things, Google is accused of misleading users when they use Google’s incognito mode because personal data would indeed be stored during surfing in this mode. The storage would concern, among other things, data on surfing behaviour since Google’s own services, such as Google Analytics, would also store data in incognito mode, even though Google would not point this out separately. It remains to be seen how the lawsuit will turn out.
4. Google owns popular products like YouTube and Android, but that also makes Google omnipresent.
Google has developed or bought up many products over time, most of which, such as YouTube, are very popular and enjoy a large number of users. Google is therefore putting out feelers in a wide variety of areas; in principle, however, you also benefit from this because of the quality of Google’s products. However, Google does not only use tracking in its search engine but also, for example, on YouTube or when using an Android smartphone. To exaggerate, Google thus knows everything about you, or at least a great deal. DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, blocks Google’s tracking methods, among other things, and shows you how privately you are currently surfing the web or how you are being tracked. To assess your privacy, DuckDuckGo shows you grades from A – F on the website you are visiting.
5. Why not try something new?
If you don’t like DuckDuckGo or the search results don’t meet your expectations, you can also quickly return to Google or get a second opinion via Google. You can even do this with DuckDuckGo itself because you can use the !bangs function and enter !g to send your query directly to Google.
