DuckDuckGo: Need stronger privateness regulation, energy in arms of customers

“We want the power not just to be in the hands of the companies, but in the users themselves so they can choose to opt-out very easily of tracking or choose an alternative service if they don’t like one particular service,” says Daniel Davis, communication supervisor for DuckDuckGo, advocating stronger privateness regulation amid the rising scrutiny of huge tech firms.
“We want to see stronger privacy regulation not just in the US but worldwide,” Davis advised indianexpress.com over a Zoom name from Yokohama, Japan. “It’s happening but slowly. We have GDPR in Europe, we have CCPA in California, and those both protect consumers’ privacy rights. We want to see that picked up in each region of the world.”
DuckDuckGo, a search engine that places privateness first, goes sturdy regardless of Google’s dominance within the on-line search market via varied companies. The search engine, based in 2008, touched its highest quantity, 102,251,307 search queries on a single day, earlier this month.
Davis says it’s mistaken for large tech firms to assume there are not any “easy alternatives” to the companies they provide. People are conscious that different choices exist and there are options to Google’s services, he added.
DuckDuckGo is pitched as a privacy-oriented search engine. (Photograph: PR picture)
Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo doesn’t retailer IP addresses or private data. But DuckDuckGo works much like different serps, together with Google. It makes use of its internet crawler, DuckDuckBot, and different sources to compile its search outcomes, together with Bing, Yahoo, and Wikipedia.
“We don’t know many users we have because we don’t track users,” mentioned Davis. DuckDuckGo at present processes round 2 billion searches each month. In comparability, Google processes over 3.5 billion searches per day. There is not any comparability between the 2 serps, however DuckDuckGo’s reputation has grown through the years.
“We’re profitable, we’ve been profitable since 2014,” claims Davis. “We’re growing, and we’re doing it by not collecting user data, it is possible. We want to serve other companies, you can do that, too.”
“It’s difficult for ordinary users to get privacy on Google and other large companies that have a business model based on collecting as much data as possible,” says Davis.
“Search is one of the most private things we do, and if the search engine that they use for months and years builds up all your searches over that time, it’s effectively creating a profile, a snapshot of who you are. We don’t do that,” he explains.
The search engine doesn’t acquire or retailer private data. (Photograph: PR picture)
Davis says the Pennsylvania-based firm is repeatedly making an attempt to enhance search outcomes primarily based on the person question and rank related outcomes accordingly. DuckDuckGo not too long ago launched extra filters, so when looking for photographs, for instance, you may use these filters to pick out specific components by measurement or color.
“We’re constantly trying to reduce the spam that you get in search results and trying to maintain a high relevancy.” More importantly, the entire goal on our search aspect is that there isn’t any compromise, in order that customers don’t have to surrender one thing to have privateness.” He added: “We want to show them that you can have privacy, and continue to have really good search results and good search experience.”
Davis admits DuckDuckGo reveals you adverts, however they’re contextual primarily based and never behavioral. “We want to keep the service going to provide privacy for as many people as possible and we need revenue,” he mentioned. To be clear, as Davis explains, the adverts themselves don’t monitor you and they’re primarily based on what you’re looking out at the moment, and never on any historical past as a result of the search engine doesn’t monitor you.
DuckDuckGo was already a preferred search engine on the desktop for years, however currently, its cell apps have develop into extra well-liked because of the growing penetration of smartphones. In the US, as an illustration, DuckDuckGo is now the second hottest search engine on cell. Is India on the roadmap of DuckDuckGo?
“We try not to be focused on one particular market, but on a global market,” Davis responds when requested concerning the prospects about getting extra aggressive in India. Although Davis didn’t reveal how well-liked the search engine in India, he says cell utilization is larger in comparison with desktops.
DuckDuckGo is headquartered in Paoli, Pennsylvania. (Photograph: PR picture)
“We’re focusing on English language services, but recently we’re trying to localise the app into different languages and making the search available in different languages,” he provides. DuckDuckGo’s cell apps help a number of Indian languages, together with Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Marathi, amongst others. The firm additionally has servers in India, which Davis says will assist present high-speed responsive search outcomes and repair for the customers.
The tech business’s 4 strongest gamers – Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon – have come beneath antitrust scrutiny within the US. Big Tech is accused of anti-competitive habits and the strain is constructing as much as break up these firms or introduce new US’ antitrust legal guidelines that deliver main adjustments in how they function.
“I am not sure about breaking up,” Davis mentioned. “It depends on what the solution is, whether it’s the breakup, or whether it’s just to impose stronger rules, or give consumers stronger rights.”
The current controversy surrounding WhatsApp’s new privateness guidelines has sparked a mass exodus of customers shifting to various companies akin to Signal and Telegram. Davis is completely satisfied to notice that a number of privacy-focused firms are seeing document site visitors, which he thinks is healthier for the tech business and for customers. “I want to see more companies following a business model that is not based on surveillance, but based on user respect. There need to be more alternatives that make that reality,” he mentioned.
“People are frustrated. They want privacy. We’re finding more and more people searching for private alternatives,” he added.