DuckDuckGo is not blocking Microsoft tracking

[t42]

DDG is popular with Mint users so of some mild interest:

As confirmed by DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg, Bing contract prohibits DuckDuckGo from completely blocking Microsoft tracking
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31490603 :

This is just about non-DuckDuckGo and non-Microsoft sites in our browsers, where our search syndication agreement currently prevents us from stopping Microsoft-owned scripts from loading.

another article, "DuckDuckGo browser allows Microsoft trackers due to search agreement":
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... agreement/

[trytip]

add this to your /etc/hosts

Code: Select all

0.0.0.0 improving.duckduckgo.com
::1 improving.duckduckgo.com

there are layers upon layers of misguided privacy/security practices. duckduckgo is a sssnake just like google and mozilla and pretty much everything online. we can only try our best to stop the machine, but if you block everything all you get is a blank page.

[antikythera]

It didn't come as a shock to see this from DDG as they have used Bing for decades to fill gaps in their own search database.

There's an alternative called Qwant, you can learn more here

[t42]

also this address is sort of amusing
https://eric.duckduckgo.com/
... and you'll you will see

11-22.png (26.93 KiB) Viewed 490 times

[Hoser Rob]

I always thought DDg was very over rated simply because when I've used it I don't get any better search responses than I do with google, which tells me that it's using all the same SEO spam tech etc. Startpage gives me much better results. I looked at the qwant link and I think I'll try that though.

[trytip]

I looked at the qwant link and I think I'll try that though.

not to burst any bubble just looked over privacy and cookies for Quant and not looking good.

Why are you transferring data to Microsoft, and what data is it?
Microsoft provides some of the search results you see on our pages, and provides ads to the keywords in your search inquiry. This means that we need to send Microsoft some information related to your search that allows our partner to return results and ads relevant to that search, and to prevent fraudulent clicks or other activities that are not permitted by our Terms of Use.

In order to detect fraud, Qwant uses a specialized service offered by Microsoft, which does not have access to the keywords of your search. Only your IP address and the browser (your “User Agent”) are communicated to this specialized service to calculate a fraud probability score. Keywords are sent separately to another service that does not know your IP address.

now if i follow the cookie crumbs into the rabbit hole i'm sure i can come up with more. in the beginning everything was clean, then the more people onboard it gets dirty.
source:https://about.qwant.com/en/legal/confidentialite/
basically the end-user always get it in the "end"

[antikythera]

This is true, however which is the lesser of two evils? A company who were upfront about limited data sharing that is anonymised with Microsoft from the word go or one that hid it until busted recently?

What makes me chuckle is Firefox still having Google as default search engine when they are fierce competitors who oppose every principal Google stand for allegedly. They even enforce Google as the default search for Linux Mint (the Mint start page is history but can be manually re-enabled if you open the page and add it yourself manually) as part of the agreement for Linux Mint being able to carry on packaging Firefox outside a snap (unlike Ubuntu)