If end-users buy from either site, DuckDuckGo makes a commission. Advertising is shown on the search results page, while affiliate revenues come from Amazon and eBay affiliate programs.

With regards to making money, DuckDuckGo uses two revenue streams: advertising and affiliate marketing. However, DuckDuckGo promises they aren’t kept in a “personally identifiable way.” However, if you change settings, cookies are stored to remember those changes. On the former, cookies aren’t used by default.

First, is any information collected? And second, how does the company make money? Two questions are worth answering about DuckDuckGo before moving forward. In other words, your search history is safe and cannot be tied to you in any way. The company doesn’t store IP information, log user information, and only uses cookies when required. You can usually find out a lot about a person from their search history.ĭuckDuckGo is different. This means someone can see everything you’ve been searching, not just one isolated search. Also, note that with this information your searches can be tied together. With the additional account information, they are associated directly with you. Along with this information, it also keeps the date and time of the search, some information about your computer such as its IP address, and if you are logged in, your account information (including your name and email address).Īs DuckDuckGo explains, with only a timestamp and computer information, your searches can often be traced directly to you. Other search engines, chief among them Google, save your search history. Since its start, the company’s privacy policy has been a simple one: “We don’t collect or share personal information.” Now the home to over 1 billion searches per month, DuckDuckGo was founded in 2008, not in Silicon Valley, but Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

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