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Contents11
  1. Consumer impact summary
  2. Freedom
  3. Privacy
  4. Business model
  5. Market control
  6. Incidents
  7. Piracy censorship (2022)
  8. Tracking block bias (2022)
  9. Political censorship (2022)
  10. See also
  11. References

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DuckDuckGo
Basic Information
Release Year 25 September 2008
Product Type Search Engine
In Production Yes
Official Website https://duckduckgo.com/


DuckDuckGo is an American software company focused on online privacy, and was founded in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg.[1] They are well-known for their search-engine, but they also made a web browser.

Consumer impact summary

Freedom

DuckDuckGo had removed/de-ranked certain content, raising concerns about the extent of its unrestricted search results.[2][3]

Privacy

DuckDuckGo has had moments of questionable privacy. Examples of this include the incident where DuckDuckGo browser had specifically allowed Microsoft trackers to continue running, while blocking others.[4]

Business model

DuckDuckGo primarily generates revenue through showing ads in the search results. The advertisements are only indicative of the keywords used in the search.[5] In addition to this, DuckDuckGo also earns income from subscription fees paid to access its Privacy Pro feature.[6] This subscription sells DuckDuckGo VPN, Personal Information Removal, Identity Theft Restoration, and Advanced AI models.[7]

Market control

According to Statista, DuckDuckGo takes up around 2% of the U.S. search engine market. More prevalent search engines such as Google, and to a lesser degree, Bing, take up most of the search engine market.[8] However, when compared to other privacy-focused search engines DuckDuckGo is one of the most prevalent.[9]

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer protection incidents related to this product. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the DuckDuckGo category.

Piracy censorship (2022)

DuckDuckGo had removed the search results for numerous popular pirate websites, including The Pirate Bay, 1337x, and Fmovies. DuckDuckGo responded that it was not intentional and the source of the issues was with Bing's data. The search results for the mentioned website were restored by 19 April 2022.[10] Many websites that could be considered questionable remained unsearchable, however, raising concerns about smaller search engines' reliance on data from Bing.[11]

 See also: Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Tracking block bias (2022)

In May 2022, it was discovered that DuckDuckGo's privacy browser allowed Microsoft trackers on third-party websites due to a search syndication agreement with Microsoft.[12] However, this changed in August 2022 when DuckDuckGo's contract with Microsoft expired, and Microsoft's tracking was also blocked.[13]

Political censorship (2022)

DuckDuckGo's owner announced that the search engine would be de-ranking websites deemed to spread Russian misinformation.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://duckduckgo.com/about (Archived)
  2. ↑ https://www.pcmag.com/news/duckduckgo-to-down-rank-sites-associated-with-russian-disinformation (Archived)
  3. ↑ https://torrentfreak.com/duckduckgo-removes-pirate-sites-and-youtube-dl-from-its-search-results-220415/ (Archived)
  4. ↑ Abrams, Lawrence (24 May 2022). "DuckDuckGo browser allows Microsoft trackers due to search agreement". BleepingComputer. Archived from the original on 8 Jan 2026. Retrieved 25 Mar 2026.
  5. ↑ https://umatechnology.org/the-truth-about-duckduckgo-monetization/ (Archived)
  6. ↑ https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/privacy-pro (Archived)
  7. ↑ Weinberg, Gabriel (4 Sep 2025). "The DuckDuckGo subscription now includes more advanced AI chat models, along with VPN & more". spreadprivacy.com. Archived from the original on 3 Jan 2026. Retrieved 21 Nov 2025.
  8. ↑ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1220046/duckduckgo-search-engine-market-share-by-region/ (Archived)
  9. ↑ https://www.cloudwards.net/search-engine-statistics/ (Archived)
  10. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (15 Apr 2022). "DuckDuckGo 'Removes' Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results (Updated)". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on 19 Apr 2022. Retrieved 21 Nov 2025.
  11. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (19 Apr 2022). "DuckDuckGo 'Restores' Pirate Sites and Points to Bing as Culprit". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on 19 Apr 2022. Retrieved 21 Nov 2025.
  12. ↑ Abrams, Lawrence (24 May 2022). "DuckDuckGo browser allows Microsoft trackers due to search agreement". Bleeping Computer. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 21 Nov 2025.
  13. ↑ Weinberg, Gabriel (5 Aug 2022). "More Privacy and Transparency for DuckDuckGo Web Tracking Protections". Spread Privacy: The Official DuckDuckGo Blog. Archived from the original on 5 Aug 2022. Retrieved 21 Nov 2025.
  14. ↑ Kan, Michael (10 Mar 2022). "DuckDuckGo to Down-Rank Sites Associated With Russian Disinformation". PCMag. Archived from the original on 10 Mar 2022. Retrieved 21 Nov 2025.
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