DuckDuckGo

GlennO said:
You can use tools like ghostery to make it harder for to google track your online activity, but the only solution to avoid having them record your searching activity is to use a search engine like duckduckgo. Every search engine uses various means to prioritize by relevance, which often means excluding crazy shit, using a definition of "crazy shit" to the best of their abilities.

If you want to exclude a site, for example amazon.com, from your duckduckgo search results, use this: -site:amazon.com
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Thanks for the suggestion. It does work. Of course then I got amazon.ca but if I add that to the search string it excludes that also. You have to get up early in the morning to fool the masters of commerce!
 
It works ok and I try them 1st before resorting to the big G. I’m assuming it will continue to improve. Whenever I do use G I never click on the paid link because the non paid link will be below. I do click the paid links on DDG.
 
axl-fx said:
A link for brave or info on DAGG?
https://www.vox.com/recode/22981115/duckduckgo-free-speech-privacy-oops
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Well that article is from Vox so I’m skeptical since Vox is biased. Mostly what it says is that conservatives are against censorship. Which is true. It doesn’t mention whether or not the left is concerned about censorship. I would assume that some on the left are still for free speech. Looking at the responses to Musk trying to buy Twitter it is easy to conclude that some people don’t want an open platform. In any case I will continue to support the little guy DDG unless it’s not getting me what I’m looking for.
 
Admin M@ said:
I can't be bothered to change the default address bar search from Google. It's ads that bug me most, so I use AdBlock pro.
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Brave browser blocks ad by default without needing any extension.

DuckDuckGo decided to inject themselves into what you should see, so I dropped them. Nothing is like Google, but I refuse to use them on my personal computer. Currently I am using Startpage.
 
hussamd said:
Nothing is like Google, but I refuse to use them on my personal computer.
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That's how I deleted my Facebook account. It was convenient to stay in touch with high school friends and former bandmates but it all stopped when they allowed hate speech in certain countries. Nah.
 
phillyred79 said:
VPN...Tor/Onion
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So, that's actually kind of interesting.

VPNs can help a good bit. But, you have to have absolute trust in the VPN provider not logging/snooping traffic. I don't think the level of trust put in the big ones is actually all that justified. Plus, if there happen to be a small number of them that DO avoid logging, that presents very attractive targets for anyone who does want to snoop traffic.

Tor was a really interesting technology. I started playing with it almost 20 years ago, within a few months of it being published. But.....when I was in college/university, in my first "infosec" class just a few years later, we had a test question that more or less boiled down to "given the resources of a government or organized crime syndicate, how would you compromise tor and remove all of its protections?". I didn't quite get the full answer, but in that 40-person class, who were mostly taking it to fulfill a requirement rather than to become security researchers, about half the class got it partially or completely right.

Neither is inherently wrong or bad, but anyone who relies entirely on Tor or a VPN for privacy is kidding themselves.

GlennO said:
You can use tools like ghostery to make it harder for to google track your online activity, but the only solution to avoid having them record your searching activity is to use a search engine like duckduckgo. Every search engine uses various means to prioritize by relevance, which often means excluding crazy shit, using a definition of "crazy shit" to the best of their abilities.
Click to expand...

That's actually not entirely true. Every major search engine does this. Some of the smaller ones used to not do it. A couple still don't really do it.

I used to know a lot of people who used DDG as an intermediary to google (e.g., search !g) just so that their google profile and browsing history wouldn't affect their results.

skolacki said:
It works ok and I try them 1st before resorting to the big G. I’m assuming it will continue to improve. Whenever I do use G I never click on the paid link because the non paid link will be below. I do click the paid links on DDG.
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I actually occasionally click paid links on purpose just to charge the company money, and then almost always close the site and refuse to do business with them.

I know some people who work in paid search ads, but I think that the whole thing is morally wrong. I wish I could cost those companies whatever fraction of a cent a click costs and then never do business with them. But, sadly, that's not always possible.
 
Glad to see I’m not the only paranoid guy here. I’m not over the top but they really are watching us. I have noted that the majority of people and particularly the youngsters are unconcerned about the tracking. I don’t do social media, browse private, and use a VPN. This forum is the only place remotely social media-ish I hang at. Because I just know they’re out to get that skolacki guy lol. Not really but they definitely want to sell me some bullshit.
 
marsonic said:
So, that's actually kind of interesting.

VPNs can help a good bit. But, you have to have absolute trust in the VPN provider not logging/snooping traffic. I don't think the level of trust put in the big ones is actually all that justified. Plus, if there happen to be a small number of them that DO avoid logging, that presents very attractive targets for anyone who does want to snoop traffic.

Tor was a really interesting technology. I started playing with it almost 20 years ago, within a few months of it being published. But.....when I was in college/university, in my first "infosec" class just a few years later, we had a test question that more or less boiled down to "given the resources of a government or organized crime syndicate, how would you compromise tor and remove all of its protections?". I didn't quite get the full answer, but in that 40-person class, who were mostly taking it to fulfill a requirement rather than to become security researchers, about half the class got it partially or completely right.

Neither is inherently wrong or bad, but anyone who relies entirely on Tor or a VPN for privacy is kidding themselves.



That's actually not entirely true. Every major search engine does this. Some of the smaller ones used to not do it. A couple still don't really do it.

I used to know a lot of people who used DDG as an intermediary to google (e.g., search !g) just so that their google profile and browsing history wouldn't affect their results.



I actually occasionally click paid links on purpose just to charge the company money, and then almost always close the site and refuse to do business with them.

I know some people who work in paid search ads, but I think that the whole thing is morally wrong. I wish I could cost those companies whatever fraction of a cent a click costs and then never do business with them. But, sadly, that's not always possible.
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How can we find out which search engines really don't track their users? Google it? ;)
 
DuckDuckGo has proven inadequate for me. I hate Google. I mean hate. The people in charge have no moral compass and exist to manipulate by any means. But their search engine is the best there is. When I used DuckDuckGo, I found myself searching the term Google and using it instead. Quant was even worse. It's quite the conundrum.
 
steadystate said:
DuckDuckGo has proven inadequate for me. I hate Google. I mean hate. The people in charge have no moral compass and exist to manipulate by any means. But their search engine is the best there is. When I used DuckDuckGo, I found myself searching the term Google and using it instead. Quant was even worse. It's quite the conundrum.
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Yeah DDG isn’t too good yet. I try to use it 1st though in hopes it will get better. Sometimes it turns up stuff that will be buried by G. I mean, google will have it but maybe a few pages down since they favor paid results and push their bias as well. I’m with you, I dislike google but they have it down. All these little search engines are up against a Goliath. Has to be very tough to compete. So I try to support them but it can be frustrating.
 
axifist said:
I use startpage.com, which claims to be google without the evil parts.
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I haven't heard about it, thanks for the recommendation. I'm currently on ExpressVPN (here is a review by link if someone is interested). Works well on all devices, no issues yet. But it is good to have more variants for the future.
 
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Zer0th said:
I haven't the time to read all the posts but few DuckDuckGo users know that if you add !g to the end of your search query, DDG will get it's results through the gOOgle engine with BIG 'G' being none the wiser.
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I didn’t, thanks !
So, a google page comes up…how do i know i’m on the do not fly list of tracking?
 
Zer0th said:
I haven't the time to read all the posts but few DuckDuckGo users know that if you add !g to the end of your search query, DDG will get it's results through the gOOgle engine with BIG 'G' being none the wiser.
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Putting !g in the search query causes a redirect to Google's site. This is clearly not avoiding any type of tracking.1656964233209.png
 
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