Slashdot Mirror
DuckDuckGo Denies Using Fingerprinting To Track Its Users (betanews.com)
Mark Wilson writes: Responding to a forum post that accused it of 'fingerprinting users', privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo says that fears are unfounded and that it is not tracking its users. The allegation was made after the Firefox extension CanvasBlocker showed a warning to users. The suggestion of fingerprinting -- gathering as much information as possible about a user through their browser to create a unique identifier that can be used for tracking -- is clearly something that would seem to sit in opposition to what DuckDuckGo claims to stand for. The company CEO says the accusation is simply wrong.
Why would anyone use a goofy named product like this?
... so far everything to it being a Google subsidiary to a CIA honeypot. Anyone have any proof at all, or are we just going to do everything by conjecture now?
So, one guy on posts on a forum a certain API is being blocked by his Firefox extension CanvasBlocker. Not that the one individual has anything showing some tracking and data gathering, he just sees an API being used. Without any real evidence what so ever. Sounds like someone wants to sow seeds of mistrust at DuckDuckGo.
is something that should be disabled (by default).
My browser knows how what to do with different file types, and if it doesn't, it prompts me to select an application.
The problem with DuckDuckGo is that, when it comes to searching, it simply sucks. I used it as my default search engine for a week, and I had to return to Google - the results from DuckDuckGo were very mediocre. Which is a shame, for I am really sick and tired of the Google bastards (Don't Be Evil? Assholes!) but DuckDuckGo will have to improve a heck of a lot before that quality of its search results is comparable to Google's.
I can't think of anyone I know who uses DDG and doesn't employ obfuscation techniques. Out of any search engine out there, it would benefit DDG the least to even try tracking its users -- and they know it.
Accusation doesn't pass the sniff test.
Support Duckduckgo.com. I've been using it for years and have seen the amount of spam in my inbox and even social media go WAY down. We need more services like Duckduckgo.com, not fewer.
But, perhaps the inevitable attack on them is showing some success. I'm hopeful.
How does Duck Duck Go get paid.
You are not paying for their service. Therefore, you are not the customer. You are the product.
They are no different than facebook or any other 'free' thing.
It's a metasearch aggregator for google, bing, and yahoo (maybe some others as well) that you can either find a website for, or run locally/hosted yourself.
It doesn't pass on any data from your browser to the search engines, provides support for all the major modes without needing javascript (has image, file, general, text, and a few other search modes if you hit advanced from the splash page, or do an initial search) and it is open source :)
Still not as good as having a truly open source peer to peer web search infrastructure, but it is better than the current alternatives.
If they compel companies like Cisco and Juniper to insert backdoors, and Google, Facebook, Apple etc. to hand over customer data, why do you think Duck Duck Go would magically be able to avoid the law?
If you think that U.S. law enforcement are not interested in tracking searches via DDG, then you're just ignorant.
The difference is that while some other services show ads based on interests inferred from your previous viewing history, DuckDuckGo shows ads based only on the context of your search query. DuckDuckGo also adds its referral tag to Amazon product URLs in search results.
(Source: "How Does DuckDuckGo Make Money? DuckDuckGo Business Model Explained")
It maybe, but does not need to be a tracking attempt. It should be conclusively explained and removed.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I use Safari on Macbook. When using private mode, each tab is a separate session. I also use vpn. I don't log into google services. I recycle my tabs about every 30 min. How does google track me?
why do you think Duck Duck Go would magically be able to avoid the law?
Should worse come to worst, DuckDuckGo could go the way of Lavabit in 2013: discontinuing service under that brand and offering refunds to paying customers (if any).
If you use !sp instead, you can use Startpage, which anonymizes Google search results.
I've had canvasblocker give it's fingerprint warning on simple 1-page webapps I've written that don't employ any user tracking of any kind, using only vue.js in it's simplified mode and no other 3rd party components.
Canvasblocker is a "this page uses canvas objects" detector, not a fingerprinting detector.
"They are no different than facebook " = You have no actual idea of what you're talking about.
And in other news, a renowned IT clerk from San Jose working in Palo Alto denies wanting to contaminate your browser cookie cache with his amazon cookie!
... and the results are, today, good as google searches - no tracking bullshit on all links (it's why I avoid using Gmail without a IMAP client too)
At least DDG lets you search as normal with Javascript disabled. Google will inundate you with captchas if you try the same.
... to the man behind the curtain.
Of course DDG denies it. What are they going to do, stand up an admit it? Are you stupid or something?
Look at the facts:
1) The DDG search algorithms suck, and they suck bad, but;
2) Conveniently, you can prepend your search terms with "!g" to have DDG use Google to search and return those results to you.
3) You are not paying for the use of DDG search or Google search via DDG, therefore,
4) you are the product, not the customer.
QED. DDG is tracking you. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together has known this for a long time.
If they are doing this, it means that DDG has a business model., which you are free to take or leave. In the absence of one, I have always suspected that DDG is a gummint-operated honeypot to attract people searching for bomb details, child porn and drugs.
You'd better also be doing all your reading at the library too, because book check-outs are obviously logged.
based in the EU, secure, and there is no government who orders them to record user data using shady court orders. Why you would use DGG is beyond me.
I hardly ever use DDG but was thinking of switching. I just did a DDG search for elder care advice via my proxy server on the west coast. I am on the east coast. At least one result on the first page was for an assisted living facility in my city. The returned search result contained the name of my city.
All of my browser geoip and location services are disabled, and I do not allow DDG to use javascript or to access any third party sites. I hardly ever use DDG. I have no cookies, etc.
They are apparently using some fingerprint and third party data to locate the origin of this search and deliver locale specific results.