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2025 DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations: $1.1M to privacy and digital competition non-profits around the world

2025 marks DuckDuckGo's 15th year of donations—our annual program to support organizations that share our vision of raising the standard of trust online. We are proud to donate to a diverse group of organizations around the world that promote privacy and security, digital competition, and a healthier online ecosystem.

This year, we’re donating $1,100,000, bringing DuckDuckGo's total donations since 2011 to $8,050,000. Everyone using the Internet deserves simple and accessible online protection; these organizations are all pushing to make that a reality. We encourage you to check out their valuable work below.

$100,000 to Public Knowledge

Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest.

$75,000 to ARTICLE 19

ARTICLE 19 is an international think-do organisation, that takes its name from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and works to propel the freedom of expression movement, fighting censorship, defending dissenting voices and advocating against laws and practices that silence.

$75,000 to the Digital Progress Institute

The Digital Progress Institute seeks to bridge the tech-telecom policy divide through incremental, bipartisan measures in line with its principles of bringing about ubiquitous broadband, 5G and beyond, privacy for every American, real competition in digital markets, and a full-stack framework for Internet policy issues.

$50,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.

$50,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi)

With more than two decades of advocacy experience, European Digital Rights (EDRi) is the go-to, nongovernmental network working on EU and national laws and policies on privacy, freedom of expression, participation online, data protection and technology policy. EDRi unites over 50 organisations from across Europe (and beyond).

$50,000 to the Foundation for American Innovation

The Foundation for American Innovation, a think-and-do tank based in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, CA, advances technology, talent, and ideas that support a better, freer, and more abundant future.

$50,000 to the Open Home Foundation

The Open Home Foundation fights for the fundamental principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes - and for every person who lives in one. It is best known as the organization that owns and governs Home Assistant, among many other projects crucial to the open home.

$50,000 to Signal

Signal Technology Foundation protects free expression and enables secure global communication through open source privacy technology.

$50,000 to the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.)

The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) advocates and litigates for privacy, working to abolish local governments’ systems of discriminatory mass surveillance that disproportionately impact vulnerable communities.

$50,000 to Tech Policy Press

Tech Policy Press publishes reporting, analysis, and perspective on events, issues, and ideas at the intersection of technology and democracy.

$50,000 to the Tech Oversight Project

Through engaging with lawmakers, exposing false narratives and bad actors, and pushing for landmark legislation, the Tech Oversight Project seeks to hold tech giants accountable for their anti-competitive, corrupting, and corrosive influence on our society and the levers of power.

$30,000 to the Internet Security Research Group

Our mission at ISRG is to reduce financial, technological, and educational barriers to secure communication over the Internet. We operate three projects (Let’s Encrypt, Prossimo, and Divvi Up) that improve the security and privacy of billions of people using the Internet.

$25,000 to Algorithmic Justice League (AJL)

The Algorithmic Justice League is on a global mission to prevent AI harm using research, advocacy, and art.

$25,000 to the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) hosts the Competition Law Forum, a centre of excellence for European competition and antitrust policy and law. 

$25,000 to Bull Moose Project

The Bull Moose Project Foundation develops and promotes policies that promote fair markets, support American innovation, and hold Big Tech accountable for anti-competitive and anti-consumer conduct.

$25,000 to Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project

The Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) is a think tank dedicated to addressing the issue of monopoly power in Canada and around the world. CAMP produces research, commentary, and policy to make our economies more fair, free, and democratic.

$25,000 to Consumers International

Consumers International is the global membership organisation for consumer rights groups. Founded in 1960, we bring together over 200 member organisations in more than 100 countries, with a mission to empower and champion the rights of consumers everywhere and to build a fair, safe and sustainable marketplace.

$25,000 to Demand Progress

DPEF empowers people to understand how our communications and governance systems should serve democracy — and how corporate power threatens our economy and our democratic future.

$25,000 to Digital Rights Watch

Digital Rights Watch is Australia's leading digital rights organisation. They defend and promote privacy, democracy, fairness and fundamental rights in the digital age.

$25,000 to Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF)

The Society for Civil Rights e.V. (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. or "GFF") is a donor-funded organization from Germany that defends fundamental and human rights by legal means. The organization promotes democracy and civil society, protects against disproportionate surveillance and advocates for equal rights and social participation for everyone.

$25,000 to noyb

noyb is committed to the legal enforcement of European data protection laws and has filed more than 850 cases against numerous intentional infringements by Big Tech companies - to make online privacy a reality for everyone.

$25,000 to the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive's mission is to provide “Universal Access yo All Knowledge” by preserving and providing free access to digital materials and cultural heritage serving as a digital library for researchers, historians, scholars, and the public to read, learn, and explore for free.

$25,000 to the Open Rights Group (ORG)

Open Rights Group is the UK’s largest grassroots digital rights campaigning organisation, working to protect everyone’s rights to privacy and free speech online.

$25,000 to the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF)

In the past year, OSTIF collaborations led to the fixing of over 130 findings with security impact. Our security uplifts to open source projects wouldn't be possible without the continued support from DuckDuckGo. We are honored to be part of this program and contribute to a more secure Internet ecosystem.

$25,000 to Perl and Raku Foundation

The Perl and Raku Foundation is dedicated to the advancement of the Perl and Raku programming languages, through open discussion, collaboration, design, and code.

$25,000 to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse focuses on increasing access to information, policy discussions, and meaningful rights so that data privacy can be a reality for everyone.

$25,000 to Restore the Fourth

Restore the Fourth advocates with federal, state and local elected officials, to defend privacy and freedom from unreasonable government surveillance.

$25,000 to the Tor Project

At the Tor Project, we believe everyone should be able to explore the internet with privacy. We advance human rights and defend your privacy online through free, open source software and the decentralized Tor network.

$20,000 to The Markup

The Markup challenges technology to serve the public good by producing investigative journalism, unique tools, and accessible resources to inspire action and agency.

The DuckDuckGo subscription now includes more advanced AI chat models, along with VPN & more

• More advanced AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other providers are now available in Duck.ai as part of the DuckDuckGo subscription, formerly known as Privacy Pro.
• Subscribers can now access OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-5, Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4, and Meta’s Llama Maverick – and supercharge productivity at work, school, or home.
• The DuckDuckGo subscription is still the same price: $9.99 USD a month or $99 USD a year. On top of access to premium AI models on Duck.ai, it still includes our VPN, Personal Information Removal, and Identity Theft Restoration*. Sign up at duckduckgo.com/subscribe for a seven-day free trial.
• Keep an eye out for higher DuckDuckGo subscription tiers in the future with access to even more advanced AI models.

A layer of protection for everything you do online – including AI

We believe the best way to protect your personal information from hackers, scammers, and privacy-invasive companies is to stop it from being collected at all. To make that happen, we offer a layer of protection for everything you do online. Our browser, for example, is packed with a suite of built-in privacy protections, including our search engine that never tracks you. Our growing suite of private, useful, and optional AI tools is the next evolution.

AI tools have quickly become a significant part of people's online experience, but there’s a gap between how often we use AI, and how safe and in control we feel about it. According to recent Pew research, 27% of US adults use AI tools every day, but 59% feel no control over how AI shows up in their lives. That's why we created Duck.ai, which gives you access to popular AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral, with the following added protections built by us:

• Anonymized chats. We call model providers on your behalf, so personal information like your IP address is not exposed to them. 
• No AI training. Your data is never used to train the AI models. 
• Local chat storage. Chats and settings stay on your device to protect your privacy. 
• Instant deletion. Erase your chat history in a flash with our Fire Button.

Today, we're expanding Duck.ai by giving DuckDuckGo subscribers access to more advanced AI models, covered by the same strong protections. The base version of Duck.ai is not changing; it’s still free to use, with no account necessary. We’re just adding more models for subscribers. You can see which models are available with and without a subscription here.

Please note that Duck.ai is always optional, whether you’re a subscriber to DuckDuckGo or not. If AI is not for you, you can hide the AI buttons and features from your search settings and your desktop and mobile browser settings. If you use the VPN, for example, but you’re not interested in anonymized AI chat, that’s no problem. Just head to your browser’s Settings menu to turn off the AI features and continue using your VPN normally.

What does the DuckDuckGo subscription include?

Formerly known as Privacy Pro, the DuckDuckGo subscription expands the great protection you get from DuckDuckGo’s free offerings, covering even more of what you do online: 

• DuckDuckGo VPN. Built for speed and simplicity, the DuckDuckGo VPN secures your WiFi connection on your entire device, hiding your location and IP address from the sites you visit. Includes full-device coverage on up to five devices at once. Learn more.
• Personal Information Removal. Helps remove personal information like your name, address, and family connections from people search sites that store and sell it, helping to combat identity theft and spam. Available for Mac and Windows.* Learn more.
• Identity Theft Restoration. If your identity is stolen, get expert guidance as you get back on track. Brought to you by Iris (Iris Powered by Generali) — a world leader in identity theft restoration.* Learn more.
• NEW: More Advanced AI models. Subscribers can now access OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-5, Anthropic’s Claude 4 Sonnet, and Meta’s Llama Maverick, in addition to all the free-tier chat models. Models are updated regularly. See the full list here.

The price is staying the same in all regions: $9.99 USD/month or $99 USD/year, with international pricing information available on this help page.

Achieve more with advanced models

More advanced AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o are built to handle more complicated tasks than their smaller counterparts like GPT-4o mini. These bigger models are better at following detailed instructions, maintaining context through extended chats, and delivering deeper, more nuanced responses. The DuckDuckGo subscription offers a way to use some of these models, but with more privacy. Even larger and more highly advanced models will be made available through higher subscription tiers in the future.

If you’re a frequent user of different advanced chatbots, the DuckDuckGo subscription is an easy one-stop solution. It lets you access multiple premium models in one place, rather than juggling multiple subscriptions and apps. Your subscription lets you visit Duck.ai and use those premium models in any browser you like. But it's especially convenient within the DuckDuckGo browser, where Duck.ai is seamlessly integrated on both desktop and mobile. Using the DuckDuckGo browser, you can access AI chat when and where you need it, getting support for specific tasks without switching platforms. And as always, it’s completely optional – you can adjust or turn off Duck.ai’s integrations from your browser’s settings menu. 

Whether you subscribe for premium models or stick with the free tier, you get the same strong privacy protections.

Is the DuckDuckGo subscription worth it?

When you get a DuckDuckGo subscription, you get instant, full access to any or all the features you want, without complex add-ons – at a price competitive with any of the individual features on their own. The $9.99 USD monthly price tag is more cost effective than maintaining multiple separate AI subscriptions – many of which are in the $20/month range. (See this help page for more international pricing information.)

Additional features like the DuckDuckGo VPN and Personal Information Removal service add value and convenience – and everything is available in one place, your DuckDuckGo browser.

Want to give it a try for free? You can get a 7-day trial of the subscription in the DuckDuckGo Browser's settings. In the US, you can also access the 7-day trial at DuckDuckGo.com/subscribe.

How to access Duck.ai and activate your subscription 

Duck.ai can be accessed from any browser. Just visit duck.ai or hit the Duck.ai button on any search engine results page on duckduckgo.com. From there, paid subscribers can head to Duck.ai Settings, click “I Have A Subscription”, and follow the prompts to access the premium models. 

If you are using the DuckDuckGo browser, you can use more subscription features, like the VPN and Personal Information Removal*. You also have even more ways to get to Duck.ai! You can click the optional Duck.ai buttons in our desktop and mobile browsers, use one of our iOS widgets, or press and hold the DuckDuckGo icon on iOS or Android. However you get there, the process for activating your subscription is the same.

Learn more about the DuckDuckGo subscription and sign up at duckduckgo.com/subscribe

*The DuckDuckGo subscription is available in the U.S., Canada, the E.U. and the U.K. All subscribers can use the VPN and access the same premium AI models, regardless of region. Personal Information Removal is available to U.S.-based subscribers. Identity Theft Restoration coverage varies by region. Learn more here.

Try Privacy Pro for 7 Days with New Free Trials

Privacy Pro is our privacy-protecting subscription service that includes the DuckDuckGo VPN, Personal Information Removal to protect yourself from data brokers, and Identity Theft Restoration, which you can call if your identity is ever stolen.

In the year since we launched Privacy Pro, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to make it more comprehensive, more powerful, and easier to use. Have you been waiting for the perfect moment to sign up? Good news: you can now try Privacy Pro free for 7 days. The free trial is available on all platforms – sign up here to redeem the offer. After your free trial, you can continue at $9.99 USD/month or $99.99 USD/year. (International pricing information here.)

Here’s a look at the major improvements we’ve made in the past year! To learn even more about Privacy Pro, you can visit our blog and Help Pages.

Overall Improvements

International Availability

Privacy Pro subscriptions are now available in the U.S., E.U., Canada, and the U.K. Features and coverage vary by region, but the DuckDuckGo VPN works the same in all regions. You can now use Privacy Pro in more languages including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Learn more about using Privacy Pro outside the U.S. here.

DuckDuckGo VPN Improvements

More Server Locations

DuckDuckGo VPN users can now choose from more than 40 locations in 30+ countries. Check out the full list here.

Independent Security Audit

We partnered with Securitum to conduct a comprehensive security audit of the DuckDuckGo VPN and supporting infrastructure. We're pleased to report that it found no critical vulnerabilities, underscoring the strong security measures we have in place for our VPN! Visit this help page for a summary of the key findings, remediations, and accepted risks, plus a link to the full report.

Block Risky Domains Automatically

The DuckDuckGo VPN now automatically blocks known phishing, malware, and scam sites – no matter what browser you're using. This new setting is on by default on all platforms.

Now On All Platforms: VPN Notifications

All users can now get notifications that display VPN status at a glance. These notifications are on by default but can be disabled in your VPN Settings.

Desktop: Automatic VPN Connection

All desktop users now have a setting that lets the VPN connect automatically when you log in to your computer.

Desktop: Introduced App and Website Exclusions

Because some apps and websites aren’t compatible with VPNs, we made sure you can exclude them from our VPN. This lets you use those incompatible apps and websites on desktop without disconnecting from the VPN. (App exclusions are also available on Android. Not compatible with iOS.) Manage website and app exclusions in your VPN settings; you can also manage website exclusions by clicking on the VPN icon in the toolbar.

IOS: VPN Widgets and Siri Shortcuts

We created VPN widgets for the iOS home screen and Control Center, so you can quickly connect or disconnect from the VPN and see your VPN connection status at a glance. We also added a Siri Shortcut.

 Mobile: VPN Snooze

Both iOS and Android users can now “snooze” the VPN for easier access to sites and apps incompatible with VPNs.

Android: Automatically Pause VPN During Wi-Fi Calls

To help avoid dropped calls on Android, we introduced a setting that temporarily snoozes the DuckDuckGo VPN during Wi-Fi calls. The best part? We automatically restore your VPN connection when you end your call.

Android: Implemented Auto-Excluded Apps

Our new auto-exclude feature on Android automatically detects apps that aren’t compatible with VPNs and bypasses them, so you won’t need to manually adjust settings. (If you would like to adjust this feature, you can! Just go to Settings > VPN > Manage Apps.)

Custom DNS for Windows, iOS, Mac, and Android

You can now switch between the default DuckDuckGo DNS resolvers and a custom DNS resolver of your choosing in VPN Settings > Advanced Settings.

Personal Information Removal Improvements

New Personal Information Removal Dashboard

We completely redesigned the Personal Information Removal dashboard to give Privacy Pro subscribers more insight into the data removal process. You can more easily see when a site was last scanned, how many records have been removed, which sites are clear of your personal information, and more.

Personal Information Removal Request Timeline

Monitor your data broker removal requests with our new Removal Request timeline. You can track the progress of each request, see when your data has been removed, and get help with next steps if any removals take longer than expected.

More Data Brokers Covered

Privacy Pro now covers over 80 data broker sites and counting, including FastPeopleSearch, MyLife, and OfficialUSA.com. Check out the full list here. Some competitors only re-scan data broker sites on a monthly or quarterly basis…or not at all! But we re-scan the sites every 10 days, submitting new removal requests if your data has reappeared.

Improved Scan Performance

Personal Information Removal now more reliably detects when your information has been removed from the data broker sites. Your first scan after signing up or updating your profile now happens 10x faster than before.

What’s Next for Privacy Pro?

Even more improvements are coming soon. We’re working on adding an upgraded AI chat experience to your subscription, with anonymized access to more advanced chat models than the free version on Duck.ai. We’re adding more data brokers to Personal Information Removal all the time, and we’re working on bringing the feature to mobile. Your feedback helps us catch and address bugs, too – so keep it coming!

Go here to redeem your free trial today. Follow us on social [Reddit/X/Facebook/Linkedin] for updates about all things DuckDuckGo, including more Privacy Pro improvements.

The DuckDuckGo Browser: Fresh New Look, Same Great Protections, AI Optional

Have you been using the DuckDuckGo browser for a while? If so, you may have noticed a few changes around here! As you navigate through the browser, you’ll notice redesigned icons, a softer, rounder interface, and a fresh color palette. Moving between desktop and mobile is more seamless than ever. And new interactive elements show you exactly how DuckDuckGo is protecting you.  

Fresh Visuals, Seamless Protection 

We’ve updated our browser’s visual design with a new color palette and softer, rounder shapes, including new icons that we designed in-house. This new look reflects what we believe the internet should feel like with real privacy protection: calm instead of chaotic, streamlined instead of cluttered, secure instead of surveilled. 

Hit the green duck-foot shield in the redesigned address bar for real-time information about our tracking protections. Use the redesigned Fire Button to delete your browsing data with one click. Other changes you’ll notice include smoother, softer tab lines and a roomier address bar. 

Private, Useful, and Optional AI 

We’ve also made it easier than ever to access our private, useful, and optional AI features. Add a Duck.ai button to your URL bar for quick access to free, anonymized AI chats – available on both desktop and mobile. 

These new buttons join several other convenient access points. On iOS, get to Duck.ai via Siri shortcut or widgets for your Lock Screen and Control Center. On Android, you find a shortcut by pressing and holding the DuckDuckGo app icon. (There’s also a Duck.ai button on our search results page when you visit duckduckgo.com, which can be toggled on and off here.) 
 
Don’t use Duck.ai? You can disable the feature and hide the buttons in your browser’s Settings menu. 

Tell Us What You Think 

We love our browser’s new look – and we hope you do, too. If you have comments or questions, you can join our active community on Reddit or reach out on social media (Facebook | Linkedin | X).

DuckDuckGo Browser’s Scam Blocker Expands to Include Protection from More Threats

• The DuckDuckGo browser’s built-in Scam Blocker guards against phishing sites, malware, and other common online scams. It’s on by default, so you’re protected as soon as you open the browser.
• NEW: Scam Blocker now also covers sham e-commerce sites, fake cryptocurrency exchanges, “scareware” that falsely claims your device has a virus, and other sites known to advertise  fake products or services.
• Most browsers use Google tools for their phishing and malware protections, sending browsing data to Google in real time. We don’t. We designed Scam Blocker ourselves, with data from Netcraft, an independent cybersecurity company. Our scam protections don’t require an account, and we don’t share your browsing data with third parties.
• Scam Blocker is available for free within the DuckDuckGo browser on desktop and mobile. DuckDuckGo subscribers get full-device coverage when logged into the DuckDuckGo VPN – even when using other browsers.

Scam Blocker: Multiple protections for multiple threats 

It’s not your imagination – online scams are getting more sophisticated. According to new reporting from the United States’ Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024 alone. Scams related to investments, online shopping, and internet services were among the worst offenders. 

Around here, we believe the best way to protect your personal information from hackers, scammers, and privacy-invasive companies is to stop it from being collected at all.  Our browser and built-in search engine never track your searches, and our browsing protections help stop other companies from collecting your data, too. One of those protections is our Scam Blocker, designed and built by us for your security and your privacy. Scam Blocker guards against phishing sites, malware, and other common online scams without tracking your browsing data or sharing it with any third parties. It’s built into the DuckDuckGo browser and free to use, with no signup required.

Fake cryptocurrency offers, urgent messages about "viruses," and high-paying surveys – like the hypothetical examples above – are some of the common scam sites covered by DuckDuckGo’s Scam Blocker.

Scammers and cybercriminals have constantly evolving tactics, so it’s important to stay protected on multiple fronts. Thanks to Scam Blocker, the DuckDuckGo browser can help you spot and avoid some of the most common types:

• NEW PROTECTION: Scam investment sites, storefronts, surveys and more. Designed to trick you into giving away personal information or making bad financial transactions under false pretenses. These scam sites can include investment offers, cryptocurrency trading schemes, discounted pharmaceutical products, affiliate surveys with cash rewards, and more; the sites can look legitimate, but the offers are often “too good to be true.”
• NEW PROTECTION: Scareware. These alarming sites claim that your computer or phone is infected with spyware or viruses. Scareware creates a false sense of urgency to trick people into engaging with fake “tech support” and buying unwanted – or completely fake – antivirus software.
• Phishing sites. Phishing generally uses impersonation to get your login credentials or sensitive personal information. Cybercriminals’ phishing techniques include creating sham websites that look like a familiar legitimate business and using link redirects to get unsuspecting users there. 
• Malware sites. If you download a harmless-looking file from one of these sites, malware can infect your phone or computer, causing damage or extracting personal information for later use. Some malware sites start an automatic download before you even click or enter anything.
• Tracker-powered malicious ads. “Malvertising” typically involves injecting malware-laden advertisements into legitimate websites and online ad networks. Some malicious ads can compromise your system even if you don’t click on them.

The scam tactics vary, but the end goals are usually the same: to commit financial fraud using your personal information or to trick you into paying for products or services that don’t exist. If you accidentally click a link that would take you to one of these scammy sites, DuckDuckGo’s built-in Scam Blocker will stop the page from loading and show you a warning message that allows you to navigate safely away. The DuckDuckGo browser also reduces your malicious ad risk while you browse, blocking tracker-powered ads while before they load.

Other browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari rely on Google’s Safe Browsing Service to provide warnings about phishing sites, which involves sending information to Google. We don’t. We built our own anonymous solution that doesn’t send data to any third parties. No sign in, no tracking, and it’s on by default, so you're protected from the moment you open the browser. DuckDuckGo subscribers can connect to the DuckDuckGo VPN to get these protections for your whole device – including in other browsers!

How Scam Blocker works 

When you land on a potentially dangerous website, Scam Blocker will display a warning message before loading the site.

New scam sites pop up all the time, but the DuckDuckGo browser stays on top of it. We get a feed of malicious site URLs from Netcraft, an independent cybersecurity company that’s always scanning for new threats. We store that constantly refreshing list on our servers and pass any updates to your browser every 20 minutes.

The way Scam Blocker works is always anonymous. Once your browser downloads the latest dangerous site list from DuckDuckGo, it’s available locally on your device. When you navigate to a site, your browser first checks the site against the list stored on your device. If the site is on the list, your browser shows a warning message that gives you the option to navigate away safely or to continue to the site at your own risk.

Most of the potentially dangerous URLs flagged by Scam Blocker can be found on common sites like Google Drive or GitHub. Uncommon threats – which we encounter less than 0.1% of the time! – require an extra verification step that checks websites against a larger and more comprehensive database on DuckDuckGo servers. But this process is also anonymous; at no time during the threat verification process does your device communicate with any third parties. For a deeper dive on the cryptography we use to maintain anonymity  when handling uncommon threats, visit this Help Page.

All this means that your searches and browsing history are still completely anonymous.

Note: This blog post has been edited since initial publication to stay up to date with our evolving product offerings.

Private, Useful, and Optional AI: DuckDuckGo offers free access to popular AI chatbots at Duck.ai and expands AI-assisted answers on its search engine

• DuckDuckGo’s approach to AI is to provide private, useful, and optional AI features – including chat and search instant answers – to people who want the productivity benefits of AI without the privacy risks.
• Now out of beta: Get free, anonymized access to popular chatbots at Duck.ai. Easily move traditional search results – which now include more AI-assisted answers from web sources – to Duck.ai to continue your conversation.
• Both Duck.ai and AI-assisted answers are free to use, with no account required. We now serve millions of AI-assisted answers daily. If you opt to show them "often" in your settings, they should appear in our traditional search results over 20% of the time.
• Recent updates to AI-assisted answers include expanding sources across the web, beyond just Wikipedia; answering English-language queries outside the U.S.; and adding customization that lets you decide how often you want
  answers to appear: often, sometimes (default), on-demand, or never.
• Recent Duck.ai chat updates include upgraded models (GPT-4o mini and o3-mini from OpenAI, Meta Llama 3.3, Mistral Small 3, and Claude 3 Haiku from Anthropic) and a “Recent Chats” feature that stores conversations locally on your device – not on DuckDuckGo or other remote servers.

Our approach to AI: private, useful, and optional.

At DuckDuckGo, we believe the best way to protect your personal information from hackers, scammers, and privacy-invasive companies is to stop it from being collected at all. We started with a search engine that doesn’t collect your search history; our flagship experience is now a browser with a suite of built-in protections that includes our search engine, ad and cookie blocking, and many more protections.

Our approach to AI extends this strategy by integrating protected AI features that offer the productivity benefits of AI without privacy risks like tracking your prompts and training on your data.  

We’re not making AI features just for the sake of making AI features. They have to be actually useful in everyday use, starting with helping people get faster, high-quality answers to their questions. However, we recognize not everyone wants AI in their lives right now, and that’s OK with us. That’s why all our AI features are optional and can be turned off or tuned down. 

To chat or not to chat. 

Head to Duck.ai for free, proxied access to popular chatbots from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral.

A search engine’s core job is to get you the high-quality information you want fast. AI can help with that job, including a new mode of information-seeking through chat. We’re finding that some people prefer to start in chat mode and then jump into more traditional search results when needed, while others prefer the opposite. (Some questions just lend themselves more naturally to one mode or the other, too.) So, we thought the best thing to do was offer both. We made it easy to move between them, and we included an off switch for those who’d like to avoid AI altogether. 

If you want to start with chat, try Duck.ai (previously called DuckDuckGo AI Chat), a free and account-less way to access popular AI chatbots, privately. Models are periodically updated and currently feature GPT-4o mini and o3-mini from OpenAI, open-source models Meta Llama 3.3 and Mistral Small 3, and Claude 3 Haiku from Anthropic. Chats are anonymized via proxying and never used for AI model training.

You can navigate directly to https://duck.ai/ or via the optional chat icons within our search engine or browsers. (There's also a widget - on iOS for now.) You can also use the !ai or !chat bang search commands from any browser where you have DuckDuckGo search set as the default search engine. 

One way to access Duck.ai is via the Chat icons in our desktop and mobile browsers.

If you’d rather start with traditional search results, simply use DuckDuckGo search as usual. AI-assisted answers – previously called DuckAssist – will automatically appear on the search results page for relevant English language queries. You can also manually trigger an AI-assisted answer on demand by pressing the “Assist” button under the search box, which appears on most queries. The answers source information from across the web, and like Duck.ai, they are completely free and private, with no sign-up required.  

 The “Assist” button lets you generate AI-assisted answers on demand. 

We’ve continuously heard from users that they want more quick, at-a-glance answers, for a broad range of topics. For years, we’ve been doing that by working on search modules to provide instant answers for things like sports scores, local business information, where to watch movies and TV shows, and much more. Now, we are finding that we can significantly expand the scale of high-quality instant answers we can show with AI as we’re now serving millions of AI-assisted answers daily. Since we’ve introduced AI-assisted answers on our search results, overall user satisfaction with our search results has improved.   

If you were unsatisfied after trying DuckDuckGo search in the past, now is a great time to try us again. We’re always improving. If you do try us or try us again, please set DuckDuckGo search as your default search engine or download our browser and make it the device default. It can take a moment to get used to something different, and setting the default is the best way to get over that hump. 

How can I customize my search experience? 

Navigate to the AI Features section of your search settings. If you really like our AI-assisted answers, change Assist to Often, which will make them appear over 20% of time. On the other hand, if you never want to see any AI features, turn Chat to Off and Assist to Never. 

On DuckDuckGo browsers, you can choose whether the chat icon appears on the toolbar from within the ‘Duck.ai’ section in your browser settings. 

Control how often you see AI-assisted answers from your search settings. 

In addition to respecting our users’ choices, we respect publishers’ wishes to opt out of AI-assisted answers on DuckDuckGo and don’t penalize publishers for that choice. Even if they opt out as a source for our AI-assisted answers, they can stay opted into our other search results. 

How am I protected? 

When we generate AI-assisted answers, we anonymously call the underlying AI models used to summarize web sources on your behalf, so your personal information is never exposed to third parties. This method is called proxying. Duck.ai chats work similarly.  To accomplish this technically, we remove your IP address completely and use our own IP address instead. This way, the proxied requests are coming from us, not you. For more information, please see the DuckDuckGo General Privacy Policy.  

Duck.ai's "Recent Chats" let you pick up where you left off. Chats are saved locally on your device – not on DuckDuckGo or any other outside servers.

Within Duck.ai, recent chats are only stored locally on your device, not on DuckDuckGo servers. Not interested in storing your chats? You can disable the option altogether, or use the Fire Button to clear all your recent chats at once. Duck.ai chats are not used for any AI training, either by us or the underlying model providers. To respond with answers and ensure all systems are working, these providers may store chats temporarily, but we remove all the metadata so there’s no way for them to tie chats back to you personally. On top of that, we have agreements in place with all providers to ensure that any saved chats are completely deleted within 30 days. For more information, please see the DuckDuckGo AI Chat Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. 

Clear your recent Duck.ai chats with the click of a button.

Are AI-assisted answers reliable? 

When you search on DuckDuckGo, our AI-assisted answers are based on real-time web crawling, so they’re as reliable as the sources from which they are drawn.  But even the most reliable sources can have errors, and mistakes can occasionally happen in the summarization process, too. That’s why we prominently display our cited sources: you can easily check them out and use your own judgment to make the final call.

Want to know where your AI-assisted answer came from? Check the sources below the answer and click through for a deeper dive into complex topics. 

We also have a number of precautions in place. Out of the countless websites we could draw from, we try to weed out ultra-low-quality sources like spammy content farms and invasive people search sites, and we try to avoid satirical sites and opinion pieces. 

You are a critical part of the process as well. “Was this helpful? 👍 👎” is displayed next to every AI-assisted answer. So, if you see a bad answer – or a great answer! – please let us know. We review it all as part of our quality control process. 

Is this really free? 

Yes! AI-assisted answers are integrated into DuckDuckGo search, which is always free to use, with no log-in required. (We make money from private search ads.) Chatting on Duck.ai is also free within a daily limit, which we implement while maintaining strict user anonymity, just like we do for our search engine. We plan to keep the current level of access free; we’re exploring a paid plan for access to higher limits and more advanced (and costly) chat models. 

What’s next? 

We are largely driving our AI roadmap based on your feedback, so please keep it coming—we appreciate it. Within Duck.ai, this includes adding newer models, voice and image support, and granting models web access. For AI-assisted answers on our traditional search engine, we’re making them faster and more interactive, answering more queries, and improving when they appear automatically, including for less straightforward queries. 

In the meantime, give Duck.ai a try and keep an eye out for AI-assisted in your traditional search results. Head to your search settings if you want to see them more or less often. 

2024 DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations: $1.1M to support digital rights, online privacy, and a better Internet ecosystem

2024 marks DuckDuckGo's 14th year of donations—our annual program to support organizations that share our vision of raising the standard of trust online. We are proud to donate to diverse group of organizations around the world that promote privacy, digital rights, access to information online, and a healthier online ecosystem.

This year, we’re donating $1,100,000, bringing DuckDuckGo's total donations since 2011 to $6,950,000. Everyone using the Internet deserves simple and accessible online protection; these organizations are all pushing to make that a reality. We encourage you to check out their valuable work below, alongside details about how our funds were allocated this year.

$100,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

“EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.”

$75,000 to Public Knowledge

"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest."

$50,000 to ARTICLE 19

"Established in 1987, ARTICLE 19 is an international non-profit organization that defends freedom of expression, fights against censorship, protects dissenting voices, and advocates against laws and practices that silence individuals, both online and offline."

$50,000 to Demand Progress

"DPEF educates our members and the general public about matters pertaining to the democratic nature of our nation’s communications infrastructure and governance structures, and the impacts of corporate power over our economy and democracy."

$50,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi)

"The EDRi network is a dynamic and resilient collective of 50+ NGOs, as well as experts, advocates and academics working to defend and advance digital rights across Europe and beyond. For over two decades, it has served as the backbone of the digital rights movement and has achieved landmark successes in digital rights in Europe."

$50,000 to Fight for the Future

"Known for organizing some of the largest and most effective online campaigns in history, Fight for the Future’s mission is to ensure a just Internet and technology that is a force for empowerment and liberation, free of surveillance, censorship, and abuse of personal data."

$50,000 to The Markup

"The Markup challenges technology to serve the public good by producing investigative journalism, unique tools, and accessible resources to inspire action and agency."

$50,000 to OpenMedia

"OpenMedia is a community-driven organization that works to keep the Internet open, affordable, and surveillance-free. We operate as a civic engagement platform to educate, engage, and empower Internet users to advance digital rights around the world."

$50,000 to Restore the Fourth

“Restore the Fourth opposes mass government surveillance, and organizes locally and nationally to defend privacy and the Fourth Amendment.”

$50,000 to Signal

“Signal Technology Foundation protects free expression and enables secure global communication through open source privacy technology.”

$50,000 to the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.)

“The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) advocates and litigates for privacy, working to abolish local governments’ systems of discriminatory mass surveillance."

$50,000 to Tech Policy Press

“Tech Policy Press promotes discussion, debate, and analysis of issues and ideas at the critical intersection of technology and democracy.”

$50,000 to the Tech Oversight Project

"Through engaging with lawmakers, exposing false narratives and bad actors, and pushing for landmark legislation, the Tech Oversight Project seeks to hold tech giants accountable for their anti-competitive, corrupting, and corrosive influence on our society and the levers of power."

$25,000 to Algorithmic Justice League (AJL)

“AJL’s harms reporting platform aims to capture people's lived experiences with AI harms, connect them with resources, and identify areas where there are no or few resources.”

$25,000 to Bits of Freedom

“Bits of Freedom shapes tech policy in order to facilitate an open and just society, in which people can hold power accountable and effectively question the status quo.”

$25,000 to the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)

"The Competition Law Forum is a centre of excellence for European competition and antitrust policy and law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)."

$25,000 to the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2)

“UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2), housed in the UCLA Division of Social Sciences, is a critical internet studies community committed to reimagining technology, championing social justice, and strengthening human rights through research, culture, and public policy.”

$25,000 to Creative Commons (CC)

“Creative Commons (CC) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to building and sustaining a thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture that serves the public interest.”

$25,000 to Digital Rights Watch

"Digital Rights Watch is Australia's leading digital rights organisation. They defend and promote privacy, democracy, fairness and fundamental rights in the digital age."

$25,000 to Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF)

"The Society for Civil Rights e.V. (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. or "GFF") is a donor-funded organization from Germany that defends fundamental and human rights by legal means. The organization promotes democracy and civil society, protects against disproportionate surveillance and advocates for equal rights and social participation for everyone."

$25,000 to noyb

"noyb is committed to the legal enforcement of European data protection laws and has filed more than 850 cases against numerous intentional infringements by Big Tech companies - to make online privacy a reality for everyone."

$25,000 to the Open Home Foundation

“The Open Home Foundation fights for the fundamental principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes - and for every person who lives in one. It is best known as the organization that owns and governs Home Assistant, among many other projects crucial to the open home."

$25,000 to the Open Rights Group (ORG)

"Open Rights Group is the UK’s largest grassroots digital rights campaigning organisation, working to protect everyone’s rights to privacy and free speech online."

$25,000 to the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF)

"Open Source Technology Improvement Fund helps critical open source projects with their security needs and is grateful for the continued support from DuckDuckGo. This funding is pivotal to ongoing operations, as it is one of our only donation sources that is not tied to any deliverable or project. Over the past year, OSTIF has been able to sustainably help critical open source projects improve their security posture, and in the process have found and fixed over 150 bugs and vulnerabilities."

$25,000 to Perl and Raku Foundation

"The Perl and Raku Foundation is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) which fulfills a range of activities including the collection and distribution of development grants, sponsorship and organization of community-led local and international Perl conferences, and support for community resources and user groups."

$25,000 to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

"Privacy Rights Clearinghouse focuses on increasing access to information, policy discussions, and meaningful rights so that data privacy can be a reality for everyone."

$25,000 to Proof

"Proof is a new nonprofit journalism studio that is working to redefine and reimagine trustworthiness in news and investigative reporting."

$25,000 to the Tor Project

"At the Tor Project, we believe everyone should be able to explore the internet with privacy. We advance human rights and defend your privacy online through free, open source software and the decentralized Tor network."

Roadblocks to Competition: Investigate Google’s Non-Compliance with the EU’s Digital Markets Act

Today, we are calling on the European Commission to launch three non-compliance investigations around Google’s obligations under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA): 

1. On Google’s non-compliance with Article 6(11), which requires Google to share anonymized click and query data.
2. On Google’s non-compliance with Article 6(3), which requires Google to implement choice screens and enable end users to easily change default search settings. 
3. On Google’s non-compliance with Article 6(4), which requires any downloaded search or browser app to have the ability to prompt users to set search defaults easily. 

The DMA created these obligations to address Google’s scale and distribution advantages, which the judge in the United States v. Google search case found to be illegal. The judge specifically highlighted that 70% of queries flow through search engine access points preloaded with Google, which creates a “perpetual scale and quality deficit” for rivals that locks in Google’s position. 

Unfortunately, Google is using a malicious compliance playbook to undercut the DMA. Google has selectively adhered to certain obligations – often due to pressure from the Commission – while totally disregarding others or making farcical compliance proposals that could never have the desired impact.  As a result, the DMA has yet to achieve its full potential, the search market in the EU has seen little movement, and we believe launching formal investigations is the only way to force Google into compliance. The Commission has already demonstrated its ability to use such investigations effectively under the DMA. 

While Google’s bad faith approach is not surprising, it should not go unnoticed. Any regulator looking to create enduring competition in the search market should take note of the tactics Google is using to thwart and circumvent its legal obligations.

We project Google’s Click-and-Query data sharing proposal eliminates ~99% of search queries.

Google’s exclusive default distribution deals mean they see many times more search queries than any competitor can, which gives them what’s called a “scale advantage.” In Article 6(11), the DMA directly addresses this scale advantage by mandating Google share anonymized click, query, ranking, and view data. This data would help search engines improve results quality, especially for less frequent (so-called “long-tail”) queries. 

Google’s Click-and-Query obligation under the DMA, Article 6(11), reads: 

“The gatekeeper shall provide to any third-party undertaking providing online search engines, at its request, with access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory [FRAND] terms to ranking, query, click and view data in relation to free and paid search generated by end users on its online search engines. Any such query, click and view data that constitutes personal data shall be anonymised.”

To comply with this requirement, Google announced the “Google European Search Dataset Licensing Program.” However, this data set has little to no utility to competing search engines due, in large part, to Google’s proposed anonymization method, which only includes data from queries that have been searched more than 30 times in the last 13 months by 30 separate signed in users. This method is conveniently overbroad: we extrapolate that Google’s dataset would omit a staggering ~99% of search queries including “longtail” queries that are the most valuable to competitors. Google is trying to avoid its legal obligation in the name of privacy, which is ironic coming from the Internet’s biggest tracker. 

Part of our goal at DuckDuckGo has always been to prove that tech can make great products without exploiting people’s data or using mass surveillance.  Our Privacy Policy explains how we go about doing this, for example, “we have no way to create a history of your search queries.” We do this by stripping out any metadata that can tie searches together made by the same individual, so re-identification cannot happen like in the memorable AOL case. For example, we may know that we got a lot of searches for "cute cat pictures" today, but we don’t know - and have no way to figure out - who actually performed those searches.

The fact is that most "rare" queries are actually just common words put in an order that isn’t searched very often. These queries are not inherently problematic since they cannot be traced back to any individual. So, instead of attempting to filter all of these relatively unique queries, we should instead focus on removing the subset of those queries that contain personal identifiers, like addresses and phone numbers or accidental pastes like user ids and passwords. Fortunately, there are relatively straightforward approaches to remove these types of queries that will result in much of the long tail data remaining available to improve search results.

This isn’t even the only part of the proposal that severely hampers the usefulness of the data:

• The proposal averages ranking data, which eliminates critical nuances. It also doesn’t provide anonymous ranking signals like dwell time or bounce rate. 
• The proposal shares at best three-month old data, meaning the data is already stale when received because many results would no longer reflect current search trends.
• The proposal contains hardly any information on search modules, such as knowledge panel content, meaning information on much of the content on the search result page is not being shared.

We recognize that fine-tuning the right approach requires further considerations and, most importantly, testing and good faith cooperation from Google. Faced with Google’s continued obstruction, we believe that opening an official investigation is the only way to arrive at a workable proposal. We would like to help in that effort and believe there are ways for Google to provide a data set that is both privacy respecting and useful to competitors. 

Google has so far completely ignored “easy switching” requirements.

The DMA includes provisions designed to facilitate easy switching of search engines and browsers, targeting Google’s entrenched hold over search and browser access points. Google’s obligation under Article 6(3) of the DMA reads: 

“The gatekeeper shall allow and technically enable end users to easily change default settings on the operating system, virtual assistant and web browser of the gatekeeper.” 

Despite this obligation, switching search engines on Android devices (which make up more than 60% of the mobile market in the EU) is still not “easy.” Before the DMA came into effect, it took more than 15 steps to switch your default search engine on Android and today that is still the case. 

Zero changes have been made. What should happen is that users should be able to change their default search engine across every search access point in one click, similar to how a choice screen works, but currently choice screens are only shown on device onboarding. Users should be able to get back to a similar screen via a top-level device setting for default search, which we should be also able to guide users to directly from our app.

Similarly on Chrome, switching the default search engine has not been made any easier either. For example, there’s still no way to guide a user directly to the default search engine setting from the DuckDuckGo search homepage. And Google’s persistent dark pattern for search extensions on Chrome remains.

Google has completely ignored its easy switching obligations under the DMA. As a result, we believe the Commission must launch a non-compliance investigation to get Google to fulfill its requirements under the law. “Easy switching” should mean competition is actually one click away.

Google still hasn’t rolled out its updated Android choice screens to 250+ million EU Android users.

Article 6(3) DMA requires Google to show choice screens to end users “at the moment of the end users’ first use of an online search engine or web browser.” 

Google’s search engine DMA choice screen is explicitly different from the choice screen Google implemented following the Android case. Key improvements have been made to its design, such as automatically showing taglines. But Google has not rolled out this updated DMA choice screen to all Android users, in breach of Article 6(3). Apple, for example, rolled out its DMA browser choice screen to its entire EEA user base and is planning to do so again after an investigation from the Commission – this time to Safari default users only. 

A non-compliance investigation must therefore be opened to ensure that Google will fulfill its obligation and roll out both the DMA search engine and browser choice screens to all Android devices at once like they did on Chrome for desktop and iOS. When those Chrome choice screens rolled out, the positive competitive impact was evident: DuckDuckGo search queries on Chrome have increased by around 75% across the EEA. This rapid and stable growth in query volume shows pent-up demand by Chrome users for privacy-respecting search alternatives.  

What can regulators learn from this?  

Regulators around the world should be looking at what’s happening with the DMA, learn from how Google has been able to exploit its loopholes and circumvent it, and then take steps to make sure Google cannot continue to put up roadblocks in the way of progress and fair competition.  

In the EU, Google chose to roll out self-serving compliance proposals around these obligations without engaging in meaningful consultations, leading to significant delays in achieving contestability and fairness, the objectives of the DMA. Given the opportunity, it should not come as a surprise that Google is taking advantage.  

Instead, regulators and market participants should be able to review, test, and validate remedies before they are implemented to ensure they actually accomplish their intended purpose, while maintaining the regulatory authority to launch investigations and make changes after implementation, if necessary. Regulators can set additional criteria to make sure these interventions have the desired impact. For example, dominant firms could be required to demonstrate that consumers understand how to switch and that switching to a competitor is equivalently easy to sticking with the services from the dominant firm.

In addition, we believe the DMA doesn’t properly address Google’s scale advantage. Sharing click-and-query data is a critical intervention to address Google’s scale advantage, but alone, it isn’t sufficient to create a competitive search engine. As we’ve previously written, we believe the best and fastest way to level the playing field on search quality is for Google to provide access to its search results via real-time APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), also on FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) terms. That means for any query that could go in a search engine, a competitor would have access to the same search results. 

If Google is required to license its search results in this manner, this would allow existing search engines and potential market entrants to build on top of Google’s various modules and indexes, and offer consumers more competitive and innovative alternatives. In addition, while choice screens are an excellent mechanism to provide consumers access to competitors, they need to be shown periodically, at least yearly, to give competing search engines a chance to build awareness over time. We are happy to work with regulators to craft remedies that will create enduring search competition. 

Investing in privacy-respecting companies that are raising the standard of trust online

At DuckDuckGo, we know what it's like to turn a vision into a successful company. Our founder and CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, began DuckDuckGo’s journey to “raise the standard of trust online” from his basement in Pennsylvania and turned it into a browser and search engine used by millions of people around the world. 

Today, this vision still inspires us.  Each year, we donate to non-profit organizations that align with this vision, and now we're investing in companies that align with it as well.

As more and more consumers seek privacy-conscious technologies, we want to partner with other like-minded entrepreneurs and help turn their visions into reality. With the core objective of supporting consumer privacy technologies, DuckDuckGo is actively investing in early-stage companies as well as pursuing acquisitions and partnerships. We've actually already been doing this quietly for the last couple years, and we’re energized to do more. So, we'd love to hear from you and find ways to work together.  

 We are focused primarily on three domains:  

• Search and browse: It's the core of our product and where we continue to invest most heavily. 
• Consumer privacy technologies: This spring, we launched  Privacy Pro, a 3-in-1 subscription service with VPN, Personal Information Removal, and Identity Theft Restoration. Our acquisition of Removaly was key to accelerating the development of our Personal Information Removal solution. We continue to look for other complementary technologies that could extend our offerings.  
• Emerging technologies: We recently announced  DuckDuckGo AI Chat,  which offers private access to popular AI chatbots. We’re committed to investing in this emerging technology space and others, but only in ways that are privacy-respecting.  

For early-stage investments, we are flexible on deal structure, aim to move quickly and are happy to co-invest with other companies, funds, and individuals. For acquisitions, we are open to a range of companies that share a commitment to protecting user privacy.  

You can reach Mike Marino, SVP of Finance and Diana Chiu, Director of Corporate & Business Development directly at  investments@duckduckgo.com.

Creating Enduring Competition in the Search Market

Since the ruling in the U.S. v. Google search case was announced, there has been discussion about how to remedy Google’s dominance. As a company that operates a search engine that directly competes with Google, we have several ideas about how to craft a set of legal and technical interventions that can, in combination, effectively curb the advantages Google has gained through illegal use of their search monopoly. DuckDuckGo believes it is possible to put remedies in place that will establish enduring search competition, encourage innovation and new market entrants, and result in significant market share among multiple competitors. 

However, there is no silver bullet remedy that, alone, will adequately address both Google’s scale and distribution advantage as well as ensure that Google cannot circumvent its obligations. Instead, the “remedy” must be a package of remedies that work together to effectively counteract the unlawful competitive imbalance. 

Counteracting Google’s Scale Advantage with Access to Search Results 

Many ideas on the table aim to counteract Google’s distribution advantage, but we believe it’s equally important to address Google’s scale advantage. Google’s exclusive default distribution deals mean they see way more queries than everyone else, a.k.a. their scale advantage. The court’s opinion quantifies this disparity:  

More users mean more advertisers, and more advertisers mean more revenues…. Google’s scale means that it not only sees more queries than its rivals, but also more unique queries, known as “long-tail queries.” To illustrate the point, Dr. Whinston analyzed 3.7 million unique query phrases on Google and Bing, showing that 93% of unique phrases were only seen by Google versus 4.8% seen only by Bing. 

Google uses this stream of information to continuously improve their results by running large-scale experiments in ways that no rival can because we’re effectively blinded. Google infers the best results based on queries it has seen before. If a search engine sees fewer – or often zero – similar queries, these inferences are less effective.  

As the court describes the situation, Google’s scale advantage fuels a powerful feedback loop of different network effects that ensure a “perpetual scale and quality deficit” for rivals that locks in Google’s advantage.  

Google’s exclusive defaults are part of a reinforcing feedback loop that gives them an insurmountable scale advantage and makes it difficult for rivals to compete. 

The best and fastest way to level this playing field is for Google to provide access to its search results via real-time APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. That means for any query that could go in a search engine, a competitor would have access to the same search results: everything that Google would serve on their own search results page in response to that query. If Google is forced to license its search results in this manner, this would allow existing search engines and potential market entrants to build on top of Google’s various modules and indexes and offer consumers more competitive and innovative alternatives. 

Today, we believe that we already offer a compelling search alternative with more privacy and fewer ads, relative to Google. We’ve also been working for fifteen years to make our search results on par in terms of feature set and quality by combining our own search indexes with those of partners like Apple, Microsoft, TripAdvisor, Wikipedia, and Yelp. However, we know that many consumers still prefer Google’s results due to the benefits of scale discussed above, and this intervention would erase that advantage, instantly making us and others much more competitive. 

We’ve already seen some concerns about this remedy direction that we’d like to quickly address. First, licensing Google’s search results does not involve accessing any user data. This remedy will not invade user’s privacy, which is aligned with our vision as a company. We know from experience that this remedy can be implemented anonymously, and we can advise on that implementation. We can open up Google without opening up user data. 

A second potential concern is that long-tail results on leading search engines could be similar in some cases, but that’s a feature not a bug. Google’s scale advantage gives them insights into which obscure links should be ranked higher, and so we should expect that when smaller search engines incorporate this information that some results would become more similar. However, licensing on FRAND terms should also allow competitor search engines to re-rank and mix results with other content, which will enable competitor search engines to produce different ranking algorithms based on the same underlying high-quality search results.  

Additionally, FRAND licensing will allow other search engines to more competitively differentiate on things like privacy, design, and customization of the user interface and results page, while still providing high-quality results. For example, we can envision a universe of differentiated and innovative experiences, such as features that allow users to tweak ranking algorithms, features that bring more transparency to ranking algorithms, and other AI capabilities, all leveraging Google’s search result APIs. Future-looking use cases like these must be kept in mind, and FRAND API access is what is needed to power these types of search innovations.  

A third concern is that competitor indexes could become too reliant on Google; however, if all the results that come through the APIs can also be used as an input into building search indexes, this would ensure that there is also a path to long term viability and independence for competitors. We, for one, would go further down this path. This could be accelerated if the APIs also provide access to Google’s anonymous ranking signals (for example, how often and quickly people in aggregate click back after visiting a link), which will help tune competitor indexes even faster as well as improve real-time reranking algorithms. That said, we recognize that licensing Google’s search results needs to be a long-term intervention because their scale advantage will persist as long as Google has much more significant market share than competitors. 

There are historical precedents for this type of remedy as well. AT&T’s 1956 antitrust agreement required the company to license its patents on FRAND terms, which allowed existing and new companies to build on top of AT&T’s innovations. Similarly, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 encouraged competition in communications markets by requiring large telecommunications providers to interconnect their networks with new competitors on FRAND terms. 

This is not a new technical challenge for Google either: Google already licenses their search results, including their ads, via real-time APIs to some competitors. It’s also not novel in antitrust, as API access was at stake in Microsoft’s antitrust settlement two decades ago. An API-based remedy also means that startups could immediately enter the search market rather than be forced to invest tens or hundreds of millions of dollars upfront to get started by acquiring and consuming massive data sets. It also protects nascent competition in AI-driven search by allowing them to use the APIs to ground answers in real-time. 

Finally, we should note that the EU’s Digital Markets Act attempts to solve Google’s scale advantage by requiring Google to provide FRAND access to its “click and query data.” To date, this has been ineffective because Google has undermined the requirement by limiting the data they share to the point of being useless. However, while we believe that click and query data is not a substitute for FRAND access to search result APIs, we also believe that if implemented correctly it can complement and further accelerate the path to competitor independence. That’s because API access will be limited to queries a competitor search engine actually sees, whereas click and query data can be much broader, covering almost all the queries Google sees. Therefore, access to this data in a privacy-protective manner should also be given on FRAND terms.  

Counteracting Google’s Distribution Advantage with a Ban on Self-Preferencing in Chrome and Android 

Google likes to claim everyone chooses Google, but most consumers don’t: they just go with the default. The court outlines how staggering this default advantage is: 

50% of all queries in the United States are run through the default search access points covered by the challenged distribution agreements…. An additional 20% of all searches nationwide are derived from user-downloaded Chrome, a market reality that compounds the effect of the default search agreements. That means only 30% of all [general search engine] queries in the United States come through a search access point that is not preloaded with Google. Additionally, default placements drive significant traffic to Google. Over 65% of searches on all Apple devices go through the Safari default. On Android, 80% of all queries flow through a search access point that defaults to Google. 

The court also consolidates evidence highlighting that large percentages of consumers don’t even realize they are using Google because of these defaults: 

• An internal Google email in 2016 acknowledged that “users on Edge don’t even realize they aren’t using Google.” 
• A 2018 Google study revealed there was “substantial user confusion regarding which browser and [general search engine] was in use.” 
• A 2020 Google study found that over 50% of U.S. iPhone users were “unsure” what search engine powered Safari, concluding users are “often unaware they’re using Google.”  

Users are confused and competition is crushed. As a result, Google shouldn’t be able to self-preference its search engine on Chrome and Android, which were developed to expand the reach of Google Search. Within these products, there should be no preset search default. Instead, these platforms need user-friendly settings based on sound principles that provide for:  

• Regular access to well-designed choice screens that put users in charge of choosing their search engine default when setting up Android or Chrome, and periodically thereafter. Choice screens should set the search engine across all search access points on Android and Chrome. 
• An easy way for users to navigate back to these settings. 
• A one-click mechanism for any rival search engine to switch these settings and offer itself as a default search engine when users visit their website or app. 

Image of the search engine choice screen on Android in the EU.  

Banning self-preferencing must also include a prohibition on dark patterns, and all remedies must be subject to anti-circumvention provisions. For example, these restrictions should prohibit Google from discouraging users from installing rival apps or search extensions, or encouraging them to switch back to Google. 

Unfortunately, a self-preferencing ban won’t create enduring competition by itself. However, as rivals can innovate on top of Google’s search results, and consumers become aware of rival brands and their increased quality, this increased access to consumers will accelerate competition in the search market. 

Counteracting Google’s Distribution Advantage by Restricting Exclusionary Contracts 

The court has already declared Google’s exclusionary contracts unlawful. While there are methods outside of these exclusive defaults to access search engines, the court recognizes that these “channels are far less effective at reaching users. That is due in part to users’ lack of awareness of these options and the ‘choice friction’ required to reach these alternatives.”  

Restricting these exclusive agreements is therefore essential to help open up access to the search market. However, just restructuring these contracts by itself won’t do much because it won’t directly counteract Google’s entrenched advantage. For that, we need to look to the remedies discussed above. 

On Accountability  

Even the most well-crafted remedies will ultimately fail if Google is in charge of designing and implementing them, as has been the case in the EU. We’ve seen firsthand how Google has easily and repeatedly avoided complying with both the letter and the spirit of the law. Consequently, an independent monitoring body made up of technical experts and affected market participants must be fully empowered to keep Google honest. We should expect that this monitoring entity will need to be in place for as long as the remedies are in place. We cannot let the fox guard the henhouse.  

On Structural Remedies 

We are not opposed to structural remedies, but they would need to be paired with the additional interventions outlined in this post. In other words, structural changes to Google could theoretically be an accelerant in some circumstances, but regardless are not a replacement for FRAND access to search results and click and query data together with a ban on Google-self preferencing and a restriction on exclusive contracts. And we can envision some scenarios where a particular structural remedy could be more harmful to us than helpful. 

A Long Road Ahead 

Counteracting the entrenched competitive imbalance that Google’s default advantage has afforded them will not happen overnight. Realistically, it will take years for competition to take hold, and a fully-funded and motivated Department of Justice will need to be involved for the long haul. However, we are confident that a package of well-implemented and carefully monitored remedies, each designed to address a specific choke point, can work to create enduring competition in the search market.    

DuckDuckGo AI Chat: anonymous access to popular AI chatbots

DuckDuckGo AI Chat is an anonymous way to access popular AI chatbots – currently, Open AI's GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku, and two open-source models (Meta Llama 3 and Mistral's Mixtral 8x7B), with more to come. This optional feature is free to use within a daily limit, and can easily be switched off.

• Chats are private, anonymized by us, and not used for any AI model training.
• Find DuckDuckGo AI Chat at duck.ai, duckduckgo.com/chat, on your search results page under the Chat tab, or via the !ai and !chat bang shortcuts. They all take you to the same place.
• Improvements are already on the way. Our roadmap includes adding more chat models and browser entry points. We’re also exploring a paid plan for access to higher daily usage limits and more advanced models.

Why did you make AI Chat?

Find AI Chat on your search results page for easy switching between the two.

Our mission is to show the world that protecting your privacy online can be easy. We believe people should be able to use the Internet and other digital tools without feeling like they need to sacrifice their privacy in the process. So, we meet people where they are, developing products that add a layer of privacy to the everyday things they do online. That’s been our approach across the board – first with search, then browsing, email, and now with generative AI via AI Chat.

DuckDuckGo AI Chat is a free, anonymous way to access popular AI chatbots. According to recent Pew reporting, adults in the U.S. have a negative view of AI's impact on privacy, even as they're feeling more positive about AI's potential impact in other areas. "About eight-in-ten of those familiar with AI say its use by companies will lead to people’s personal information being used in ways they won’t be comfortable with (81%) or that weren’t originally intended (80%)." Even so, another recent report shows a steady uptick in the share of U.S. adults who are using chatbots for work, education, and entertainment. If you're interested in AI chatbots but share those privacy concerns, DuckDuckGo AI Chat is for you.

In the industry-wide race to integrate generative AI, there’s a lot of pressure to add AI features just for the sake of saying you have them. We’re taking a different approach. Before adding any AI-assisted features to our products – first DuckAssist, our AI-enhanced Instant Answer, and now AI Chat – we think carefully about how to make them additive to the search and browse experience, and we roll them out cautiously to ensure this is the case. We also recognize these features aren’t for everyone, so we’ve made our AI-assisted features totally optional; if you’re not interested, you can easily switch them all off.

We view AI Chat and search as two different but powerful tools to help you find what you’re looking for – especially when you’re exploring a new topic. You might be shopping or doing research for a project and are unsure how to get started. In situations like these, either AI Chat or Search could be good starting points. If you start by asking a few questions in AI Chat, the answers may inspire traditional searches to track down reviews, prices, or other primary sources. If you start with Search, you may want to switch to AI Chat for follow-up queries to help make sense of what you’ve read, or for quick, direct answers to new questions that weren’t covered in the web pages you saw. It’s all down to your personal preference. That’s on top of AI Chat’s unique generative capabilities, like drafting emails, writing code, creating travel itineraries, and much more.

Since it can be useful to switch back and forth, we’ve made AI Chat accessible through DuckDuckGo Private Search for quick access: after you make a search, just click on the Chat tab underneath the search bar to keep exploring the topic. You can also get to AI Chat directly by navigating to duck.ai or duckduckgo.com/chat; from there, it’s easy to jump back into traditional search using the top navigation.

How does it work … and how is it private?

AI Chat is always anonymous. Want to start over? Hit the Fire Button to delete your current conversation.

When you land on the AI Chat page, you can pick your chat model – currently, OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic’s latest generation Claude 3 Haiku, and open-source options Mixtral 8x7B and Meta Llama 3 – and start using it just like any other chat interface. Just like searches on DuckDuckGo, all chats are completely anonymous: they cannot be traced back to any one individual. To accomplish that technically, we call the underlying chat models on your behalf, removing your IP address completely and using our IP address instead. This way it looks like the requests are coming from us and not you. Within AI Chat, you can use the Fire Button to clear the chat and start over.

In addition, DuckDuckGo does not save or store any chats. To respond with answers and ensure all systems are working, the underlying model providers may store chats temporarily, but there’s no way for them to tie chats back to you, personally, since all metadata is removed. (Even if you enter your name or other personal information into the chat, the model providers have no way of knowing who typed it in – you, or someone else.) We have agreements in place with all model providers to ensure that any saved chats are completely deleted by the providers within 30 days, and that none of the chats made on our platform can be used to train or improve the models. For more information, please see the DuckDuckGo AI Chat Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Is it really free?

Yes! AI Chat is free to use, within a daily limit – which we implement while still maintaining strict user anonymity, just like we do for our search engine. We are planning to keep the current level of access free and exploring a paid plan for access to higher limits and more advanced (and costly) chat models.

What’s next?

We’re excited to spread the word about AI Chat, but there are already improvements on the way. Keep an eye out for new capabilities, like custom system prompts, and general improvements to the AI Chat user experience. We’re also planning to add more chat models – potentially including either DuckDuckGo- or user-hosted options. If you’re interested in seeing a particular chat model or feature added in the future, please let us know via the Share Feedback button in the AI Chat screen.

Ready to give it a spin? Head to duck.ai or duckduckgo.com/chat. You can also find it on your search results page – the Chat tab is just under the search box, on the right side, alongside Images and Videos on the left. If you’re a fan of our bangs, you can also initiate an AI chat by starting your search query with !ai or !chat. Not for you? Head to the Search settings menu to disable AI Chat, DuckAssist, or both.

Happy chatting!

Meet DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro: a 3-in-1 subscription service with VPN, Personal Information Removal, and Identity Theft Restoration

Privacy Pro bundles three new protections from DuckDuckGo into one easy subscription. Subscribers get:

• An anonymous VPN built for speed, security, and simplicity. Secure your connection anytime, anywhere, on up to five devices simultaneously.
  
• Personal Information Removal, which finds and removes personal details – like your name and home address – from data broker sites that store and sell them, helping to combat identity theft and spam. (U.S. only.)
  
• Identity Theft Restoration. If your identity is stolen, a dedicated advisor will help restore stolen accounts, assist in recovering resulting financial losses, and help correct your credit report.

Getting these services separately from other companies could cost upwards of $30/month in the U.S.; our users can subscribe to Privacy Pro for $9.99/month or $99.99/year. Privacy Pro is currently available in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and United Kingdom; see this list for the latest availability.  Sign up at duckduckgo.com/pro and make sure you're using the most up-to-date version of the DuckDuckGo browser on all your devices. Features and coverage vary by country.

What is Privacy Pro?

Every day, tens of millions of people rely on DuckDuckGo to add a layer of privacy to their online activities. The centerpiece of our product offering is now the DuckDuckGo browser, which offers the most comprehensive set of free privacy protections by default. (One immediate benefit? Fewer ads and popups than you’d see on other browsers.) Our browser bundles our private search engine, tracker blocking, Email Protection, and more than a dozen other free privacy features in one convenient package.  However, there’s only so much protection we can provide for free. For example, some protections, like securing our users’ network connections with a VPN, require significantly more bandwidth and other resources.

Enter Privacy Pro: a three-in-one subscription service that offers even more seamless privacy protection. Privacy Pro subscribers get a fast, secure, and easy-to-use VPN that doesn’t log your activity; Personal Information Removal, which helps U.S.-based users remove your information from “people search” data broker sites that store and sell it; and Identity Theft Restoration, which helps to fix credit report mistakes and recover any resulting financial losses. (Please note: Setting up and managing Personal Information Removal requires a Mac or Windows computer.)

On its own, the DuckDuckGo browser lets you search and browse privately. By adding Privacy Pro, you can also limit data brokers’ access to your personal information and secure your Internet connection across your whole device, which hides your location and device IP address from sites you visit — all in one place.

Adding a Privacy Pro subscription makes the DuckDuckGo browser's best-in-class protections even stronger.

More protections, same privacy promise.

At DuckDuckGo, we don’t track you; that’s our privacy policy in a nutshell, and this new subscription service is no exception. Guided by the principle of data minimization, we designed Privacy Pro to maximize your privacy:

• We don’t keep logs of your VPN activity. This means we have no way to tie what you do while connected to the DuckDuckGo VPN to you as an individual — or to anything else you do on DuckDuckGo, like searching.
• Personal Information Removal is the first service of its kind that works directly from your device to keep your sensitive information safe. The details you provide during setup are stored on your device, not on remote servers, and removal requests are initiated directly from that device.
• Unlike other data removal services, which take a more scattershot approach, Personal Information Removal only starts opt-out processes with data brokers once we’ve confirmed that they have you in their databases.
• Unless you become a victim of identity theft and need help, you don’t need to provide any information for Identity Theft Restoration. It’s waiting for you when you need it.
• Payment information is securely handled by Stripe (U.S. only), Google Play, or the Apple App Store, depending on how you sign up. We do not hold or process any of your payment information ourselves.
• Instead of a traditional account, we assign you a random ID when you sign up for Privacy Pro. We have no way to connect this random ID back to your payment information.

We’re here to seamlessly protect your privacy — not compromise it. 

Read the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for Privacy Pro.

VPN

Our non-logging VPN secures your Internet connection on up to five devices at once.

Get an extra layer of online protection with the VPN made for speed, security, and simplicity — built and operated by DuckDuckGo, not an outside provider. Our VPN encrypts your Internet connection for all your browsers and apps across your entire device, hiding your location and IP address from the sites you visit. Because connections are encrypted, your Internet service provider (ISP) can’t see your online traffic either. And we have a strict no-logging policy; we don’t log or store data that can connect you to your online activity, or to any other DuckDuckGo services, such as search.

No need to install a separate VPN app. Once you sign up for Privacy Pro, you can install our VPN right in your DuckDuckGo browser. After that, you can secure your connection in just one click and check its status at a glance. It offers full-device coverage on up to five devices at once. 

Our VPN is simple to use. If your VPN connection gets interrupted for any reason, it attempts to reconnect automatically and prevents data leaks until the reconnection is successful. And it works perfectly with DuckDuckGo’s other protections; if you’re an Android user, you should know our VPN is the only one compatible with App Tracking Protection. 

We have VPN servers worldwide, and we’ll be adding more over time. To maximize speed and stability, you’ll connect to the closest available VPN server by default, but you can manually choose whichever location you prefer.

To encrypt your traffic and route it through a VPN server, we use the open-source WireGuard protocol, which is fast and secure. We also route your DNS queries automatically through the VPN connection to our own DNS resolvers, which further hides your browsing history from your ISP.

Learn more about the VPN on our Help Pages.

Personal Information Removal

Personal Information Removal helps get your name, address, and more off of people search sites.

Ever tried looking yourself up online? Where our other web tracking protections help defend against trackers that gather your personal information while you browse, Personal Information Removal goes one step further: It works to actually remove personal information, such as your name and home address, from people search sites that store and sell it, helping to combat identity theft and spam. 

How does it work? People search sites, like Spokeo and Verecor, are a common type of data broker. They collect your personal information from local and federal records, public forums like social media, and even other data brokers, and make it available online. (If you’re in the U.S., where people search sites can operate freely, you’ve probably seen them in search results when you look up your name.) We scan dozens of these sites for your info and, if found, request its removal, even handling back-and-forth confirmation emails for you automatically behind the scenes. Unlike other similar services, we only contact the data brokers once we confirm that you’re in their databases, and the info you enter for scanning is stored on your device — not on remote servers. 

To help us build Personal Information Removal from the ground up while maintaining our strict privacy standards, DuckDuckGo acquired data removal service Removaly in 2022. Removaly was a pioneer in the data removal space, developing a way to navigate data brokers’ confusing opt-out process automatically without compromising users’ privacy in the process.

Personal Information Removal re-scans sites regularly to minimize the risk of your info reappearing, using the data stored on your device. Your device also initiates any removal requests. You can keep tabs on the progress of ongoing removals — and see the personal information we’ve already removed! — on your personal dashboard within the DuckDuckGo browser. Once it’s set up, simply select Personal Information Removal from the browser’s three-dot menu in the upper right. 

You'll need to set up Personal Information Removal on one primary Mac or Windows computer. Right now, the dashboard can only be accessed from that device, but we are planning to add the ability to view it from your other devices.

Learn more about Personal Information Removal on our Help Pages. This feature is only available to U.S. subscribers.

Identity Theft Restoration

Get some peace of mind: if your identity is ever compromised, Identity Theft Restoration is standing by to help.

With more than 1 million cases a year reported in the U.S., identity theft is more common than you might think. And Personal Information Removal helps reduce the chance of identity theft, but unfortunately, nothing can totally prevent it. So, let us give you some peace of mind: If your identity is stolen or compromised, Identity Theft Restoration will help you handle the stress and expense. 

Identity Theft Restoration is brought to our users in partnership with Iris® Powered by Generali, one of the oldest firms specializing in identity theft in the U.S. Iris’s identity theft advisors are available 24/7, every day of the year, and answer calls within 11 seconds on average. This responsiveness has earned them 18 customer service awards over the last 10 years. 

If your identity is stolen, Iris will collect some details about your situation in order to provide assistance; no personal information is shared between Iris and DuckDuckGo. Once a case is established, Iris has several ways to help get you back on track:

• Repairing your credit after fraudulent activity: Iris can help freeze your credit report until your identity is restored and help fix any errors that result from fraudulent activity. They’ll also work with you or your financial institutions to help reverse any fraudulent transactions.   
• Document replacement: Iris can help you cancel and replace your driver’s license, bank cards, passport, and social security card. In the U.S., case managers can connect with financial institutions directly; elsewhere, they’ll offer guidance as you replace your documents.
• Travel assistance: In some cases, if you’re 100+ miles from home, Iris can provide a cash advance of up to $500 to assist U.S. subscribers with emergency travel. If you’re abroad when your identity is stolen, they can help you report fraudulent activity to police and legal authorities.
• Untangling fraudulent medical claims: Iris can help inform your healthcare and insurance providers of any fraudulent claims, as well as ensuring medical records are corrected — with help from their in-house medical staff if needed. 
• Covering out-of-pocket costs: For U.S. subscribers, Iris reimburses certain out-of-pocket expenses associated with identity theft restoration in some cases The reimbursement benefit is underwritten by an authorized insurance company under insurance policies issued to Iris. Please review the Summary of Benefits to understand the full coverage terms, conditions, and exclusions.

Learn more about Identity Theft Restoration in our Help Pages. Features vary by region.

Getting started and managing your subscription.

Ready to give Privacy Pro a try? Make sure you’ve got the latest version of the DuckDuckGo browser (iOS / Android / macOS / Windows) and head to duckduckgo.com/pro.  

Privacy Pro is available for $9.99 USD/month or $99.99 USD/year in the U.S., and can be purchased through the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or on the web via Stripe. Subscribers in the U.K., E.U., and Canada can sign up via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store only; international pricing details here. Your subscription will auto-renew monthly or annually, depending on the payment terms selected, until canceled. If you subscribed via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you can manage your subscription and payment methods there. If you subscribed via our website, you’ll manage your account from the DuckDuckGo browser’s Settings instead.

Note: This blog post has been edited since initial publication to stay up to date with our evolving product offerings.

DuckDuckGo browser upgrade: Privately sync your bookmarks and passwords across devices

• Now live: Sync bookmarks, passwords, and Email Protection settings between DuckDuckGo browsers on phones, tablets, and computers, privately and securely.
• Our new Sync & Backup feature is designed with your privacy and security in mind. You don’t need to create an account or sign in to use it, and DuckDuckGo never sees your bookmarks or passwords.
• The DuckDuckGo browser is our privacy-respecting alternative to Chrome and other browsers – use it every day to visit websites and search the web. Get it here for Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android devices.

Ditching Chrome for the DuckDuckGo browser is easier than ever.

Have you been waiting to try the DuckDuckGo browser? Maybe you’re using our browser on your phone but haven’t tried the Windows or Mac version?  Now is the perfect time to make DuckDuckGo the default browser on all your devices, thanks to our latest improvement: Sync & Backup. You could already import bookmarks and passwords from other browsers into DuckDuckGo, but now you can privately sync those bookmarks and passwords between DuckDuckGo browsers on multiple devices.

Bring your passwords and bookmarks with you – without compromising your privacy.

When you use Chrome, there’s a good chance you’re signed in with your Google account – because they’re constantly pressuring you to do so! There is a convenience in that; all your bookmarks, passwords, and favorites follow you wherever you browse, whether you’re using your computer, phone, or tablet. But there’s a problem. This also gives Google implicit permission to collect even more data about your browsing activity than they would otherwise have and use it for targeted advertising that can follow you around.

At DuckDuckGo, we don’t track you; that’s our privacy policy in a nutshell. We’ve developed our privacy-respecting import and sync functions without requiring a DuckDuckGo account – and without compromising your personal data.

Our built-in password manager stores and encrypts your passwords locally on your device. Our private sync is end-to-end encrypted. (When you use private sync, your data stays securely encrypted throughout the syncing process, because the unique key needed to decrypt it is stored only on your devices.) Your passwords are completely inaccessible to anyone but you. That includes us: DuckDuckGo cannot access your data at any time.

What can Sync & Backup do?

• Privately sync and access the bookmarks and passwords saved in your DuckDuckGo browsers – including any you’ve imported from other browsers – across multiple devices.
• Back up passwords, bookmarks, and favorites in case your device is lost or damaged.
• Migrate your bookmarks and passwords to a new device.
• Sync your Email Protection account between devices.

Ready to give it a try? Here’s where to start…

The first step is to download our free browser on one or more devices. (The feature works across most Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone devices – if you’ve got our browser, you can use Sync & Backup!) If you’re already using the browser, check that it’s up to date. Next, head to the browser’s Settings, choose Sync & Backup > Sync With Another Device and follow the instructions under Begin Syncing.

If you’re on a mobile phone or tablet, you can link devices with a QR code; on desktop computers, you’ll manually enter an alphanumeric code.

Sync passwords and bookmarks between devices by scanning a QR code or manually entering a unique alphanumeric code – no signing in necessary.

Only working with one device? Choose Sync and Back Up This Device from the “Single-Device Setup” section. Once your sync is complete, you can see a list of all your synced devices, edit device nicknames, and fine-tune your settings.

See a list of your synced devices – and add new ones! – under your browser’s Settings > Sync & Back Up.

Once you’re set up, you’ll want to save your Recovery PDF in a secure place. This document contains your Recovery Code, a unique code that will let you access your synced data if your devices are lost or damaged. This is especially important because of our secure end-to-end encryption; your Recovery Code contains the unique, locally generated encryption key that keeps your data private from everyone – including us! If you lose your devices, your Recovery Code is the only way to access your data from a new phone or computer.

With your Recovery Code, you can restore bookmarks, favorites, and other DuckDuckGo settings on a replacement device if yours is lost or damaged.

What else can the DuckDuckGo browser do?

The DuckDuckGo browser comes with the features you expect from a go-to browser – it even banishes any ads we find that run on creepy trackers, without the need for an outside ad blocker. It also handles cookie pop-ups for you where we can. Plus, over a dozen powerful privacy protections not offered in most popular browsers by default. This uniquely comprehensive set of privacy protections helps protect your online activities, from searching to browsing, emailing, and more.‌‌‌‌

Our privacy protections work without you having to know anything about the technical details or deal with complicated settings. Just switch your browser to DuckDuckGo across all your devices, and you’ll get privacy by default.

For more detailed instructions on how to use the new sync function – or to peek under the hood of any of DuckDuckGo’s privacy protections! – you can find more information on our Help Pages.

Great for Privacy, Great for the Environment: DuckDuckGo Is Now Carbon Negative

• DuckDuckGo is now carbon negative dating back to our founding in 2008 through 2020, and is committed to being carbon negative in perpetuity.
• We've pioneered new estimation techniques, given our distributed team and non-physical product.
• We're accounting for our full-scope emissions, including upstream and downstream suppliers.
• We're donating the equivalent of 125% of our calculated net emissions to projects vetted by carbon-offset startup CNaught yearly, ranging from emissions reductions to conservation and long-lived removal.
• We're giving that same dollar amount yearly to advance carbon removal technology, currently via Carbonfuture.

At DuckDuckGo, our vision is to raise the standard of trust online. We also care about our impact offline, so we've stepped up to do our part in the climate crisis. We have already been doing what we can to minimize our carbon footprint, including using sustainable energy to power our servers and being a fully distributed company. We’re proud that, as of 2020, DuckDuckGo is carbon negative dating back to our founding in 2008.

When we set out to do this, we quickly realized there wasn’t much guidance for companies like ours that have 100% distributed teams and provide non-physical goods and services. We hope our experience figuring this out can be a reference guide for similar organizations. Here’s the summary:

• Redefining the Scope. We defined our carbon footprint in the broadest possible sense, including all of our suppliers, and vendors (In carbon language, that means Scopes 1, 2, and 3, as well as any other upstream/downstream activities we could pinpoint). We estimated the total impact of all search queries using our search engine, all our marketing activities (including the carbon used when viewing our online display ads), and – given we are a fully distributed company – the impact of all our local working environments.
• Estimating Emissions. During our initial estimate in 2020, we back-estimated to our founding in 2008.
• Net Zero Emissions. In 2020, we funded Gold Standard projects to achieve net zero emissions. Today, we work with CNaught, a carbon-offset firm that relies on leading science to build a rigorously vetted portfolio of projects from around the world, designed from the ground up to maximize climate impact.
• Going Carbon Negative. To go carbon negative in 2020, we first funded an additional 25% of reduction, for a total of 125% of our emissions. We then doubled this dollar amount and spent the second half on Stripe Climate to help build a much-needed market for carbon removal. We’re continuing this work with Carbonfuture, with a global portfolio of expertly vetted carbon removal projects backed by a cutting-edge, data-powered monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) solution that brings trust to every stage of the carbon removal process.

Redefining the Scope

We set out to calculate our carbon footprint using the commonly used Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The Protocol groups emissions into three “scopes” and additional activities:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions, e.g., emitted by factories or vehicles you own.
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions from purchasing energy, e.g., buying electricity for or heating and cooling your buildings.
• Scope 3: Other indirect emissions from making products and services, e.g., from purchased materials, business travel, etc.
• Full Upstream/Downstream Activities: Other emissions not covered so far in the full lifecycle of your products and services, e.g., distribution, storage, and disposal, sometimes covered in Scope 3 definitions and sometimes not.

Many companies who claim they are “carbon neutral” are often only looking at their Scope 1 or Scope 1 and 2 emissions, even though Scope 3 and Full Upstream/Downstream Activities are often where the vast majority of emissions take place—especially for organizations not producing or processing physical goods.

In addition, many organizations only look at activities where clear guidelines have been defined (e.g., air travel), but ignore areas where there are no guidelines (e.g., impact of marketing, home offices, etc.), even if much of the organization’s carbon emissions are the result of these activities.

At DuckDuckGo, we didn't think the standard went far enough, so we redefined our approach to make us responsible for all emissions we cause that are not already net zero, regardless of their categorization (or lack thereof).

Estimating Emissions

To estimate our emissions, we pulled together leading source material from environmental agencies around the world including the UK DEFRA / DEEC 2012 GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting, the EPA's 2018 Emission Factors for Greenhouse Gas Inventories Report, the BEIS' 2019 Government Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors for Company Reporting Methodology Paper, and the Environmental Commission of Ontario's 2019 Climate Pollution Report. From here, we mapped out the carbon footprint of every single transaction on our books for the entire 2019 calendar year (since we started working on this in mid-2020) and used that to build a model to estimate category emissions per accounting transaction. That means every vendor bill and credit card purchase by a team member.

While some transactions fit into standard models developed by government agencies (e.g., air travel), it turned out that to our knowledge, no one in government had ever calculated the carbon emissions of an online display advertisement. So, in cases where there was no standard model—or where we felt a standard model clearly under-estimated the actual carbon footprint—we developed our own formulas.

We then surveyed our team to better understand their home-office/co-working situations, including the hardware and software they use, their work-related transit, and recorded all this usage as if it were regular direct Scope 1 emissions.

This led to us estimating some currently unorthodox emissions including:

• The hardware and software our staff use in their home offices.
• A proportional amount of heating/cooling used in each home office during the workday.
• The fuel used in the vehicles staff take to partner meetings.
• The emissions that stem from our marketing (both online and offline), such as showing a display ad on a user's computer.
• The amount of emissions generated from each DuckDuckGo Private Search query.

Lastly, we checked the sustainability programs of every single vendor we used in any capacity. Where one couldn't be identified, or where the program clearly failed to account for 100% of their carbon emissions, we recorded the full CO2e emissions from those transactions as our own.

In the end, our estimate for our 2019 emissions — including Scope 1, 2, 3, and Full Upstream/Downstream Activities — totaled 1,075T of CO2e. That works out to an average of 14.33T of CO2e/per year/per full-time team member.  We used that figure to calculate a total of 5,875T of CO2e for the entire existence of DuckDuckGo, from our 2008 founding through 2020.

Net Zero Emissions

Once we felt our carbon emissions were properly estimated, we set out to understand how we could properly achieve net zero emissions in a way that would:

• Directly reduce carbon.
• Not come at other environmental costs.
• Respect and improve human life.

After an extensive review of our options, we first partnered with GoldStandard.org, an international non-profit foundation that is focused on reducing carbon emissions through sustainable investment in carbon reduction projects that also help improve the lives of those involved. Those projects included:

• Funding biomass generators in India, Malawi, Kenya, and biodigesters in Cambodia to bring safe, clean, self-reliant energy to small rural farming villages.
• Funding new wind farms in India and Indonesia, to provide clean energy to regions currently dependent on coal burning electricity.
• Providing solar cooking stoves in Chad, and improved clean efficiency stoves in Guinea and Rwanda, to end coal burning pollution and help protect families from inhaling toxic fumes when cooking in the home.
• Funding hydroelectric power in Honduras, and renewable energy in Brazil.
• Supporting biomass conservation and local biodiversity reforestation in Nicaragua and Ethiopia to help local farmers and conservationists rebuild soil that is suffering from desertification due to deforestation.

Current partner CNaught’s projects are similarly distributed across five categories ranging from emissions reductions to conservation and long-lived removal. You can learn more about each category, including example projects, on the CNaught website.

We're proud that DuckDuckGo is not only achieving net zero emissions, but doing so in a way that we hope will have a transformative and on-going impact around the world, creating jobs and improving the health and quality of life for many.

Going Carbon Negative

Addressing the climate crisis requires us to collectively get to net zero global emissions. We believe doing so will require the use of new technologies at scale, such as physically removing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it permanently. Unfortunately, this technology is too expensive right now to make an impact at scale.

In 2020, we were one of the first companies to join Stripe's Climate Program to bring down the cost of this technology by making commitments to fund this new type of carbon reduction. Unlike other carbon reduction methods, Stripe's program required that all carbon removal has a permanence of greater than a thousand years, is directly measured and verifiable, and has a net-negative lifecycle ratio of less than one.

Today, DuckDuckGo is pleased to contribute to carbon removal with Carbonfuture. We have committed that every year, whatever amount of money we spend on CNaught projects, we will make an equal dollar contribution to Carbonfuture to help directly remove carbon from the air – and more importantly, to help pull this technology forward. Visit Carbonfuture’s website to learn more about their rigorous, data-driven approach to carbon removal.

Sustainability at DuckDuckGo

We're committed to doing our part, both online and off. As a DuckDuckGo user, we hope you can rest assured that we are doing our part in the climate crisis. We're now achieving net zero emissions through rigorously measured programs that continue to have a positive environmental and societal impact year after year. We're going carbon negative by funding projects to account for 125% of our emissions, and then doubling that total amount to invest in physically removing carbon from the air to advance this important technology for our future.

Note: This blog post has been edited since initial publication with additional information about our sustainability commitments.

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2023 DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations: $1.1M to support privacy, competition, and digital rights

2023 marks DuckDuckGo's thirteenth year of donations—our annual program to support organizations that share our vision of raising the standard of trust online. This year, we're proud to donate to a diverse selection of organizations across the globe that strive for better privacy, digital rights, greater competition in online markets, and access to information free from algorithmic bias.

This year, we’re donating $1,100,000, bringing the total donations since 2011 to $5,850,000. Everyone using the Internet deserves simple and accessible online protection; these organizations are all pushing to make that a reality. We encourage you to check out their valuable work below, alongside details about how our funds were allocated this year.

$125,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

“EFF’s mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. EFF has been defending civil liberties in the digital world for over thirty years.”

$125,000 to The Markup

"The Markup challenges technology to serve the public good by producing investigative journalism, unique tools, and accessible resources to inspire action and agency."

$125,000 to Public Knowledge

"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest."

$50,000 to ARTICLE 19

"Established in 1987, ARTICLE 19 is an international non-profit organization that defends freedom of expression, fights against censorship, protects dissenting voices, and advocates against laws and practices that silence individuals, both online and offline."

$50,000 to Common Crawl

“The Common Crawl Foundation was founded with the goal of democratizing access to web information by producing and maintaining an open repository of web crawl data that is universally accessible and analyzable. Our vision is of a truly open web that allows open access to information and enables greater innovation in research, business, and education. We level the playing field by making wholesale extraction, transformation, and analysis of web data cheap and easy.”

$50,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi)

"European Digital Rights (EDRi) is the biggest European network defending rights and freedoms online - currently 50+ NGOs are members of EDRi and dozens of observers closely contribute to its work. In 2023, EDRi celebrates its 20th anniversary of existence - 20 years of impact and efforts to build a people-centered, democratic, digital society."

$50,000 to Fight for the Future

“Founded in 2011, Fight has organized some of the largest and most effective online campaigns in history, with a focus on ensuring that marginalized communities have equitable access to the Internet and technology that is free of surveillance, abuse of personal data, and censorship.”

$50,000 to Signal

“Signal Technology Foundation protects free expression and enables secure global communication through open source privacy technology.”

$50,000 to the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.)

“The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) advocates and litigates for privacy, working to abolish local governments’ systems of discriminatory mass surveillance."

$50,000 to the Technology Oversight Project

"Through engaging with lawmakers, exposing false narratives and bad actors, and pushing for landmark legislation, The Tech Oversight Project seeks to hold tech giants accountable for their anti-competitive, corrupting, and corrosive influence on our society and the levers of power."

$25,000 to Access Now

“As a grassroots-to-global organization, Access Now defends and extends the digital rights of people and communities at risk by fighting for human rights in the digital age through direct technical support, strategic advocacy, grassroots grantmaking, and convenings such as RightsCon.”

$25,000 to Algorithmic Justice League (AJL)

“AJL’s harms reporting platform aims to capture people's lived experiences with AI harms, connect them with resources, and identify areas where there are no or few resources.”

$25,000 to Bits of Freedom

“Bits of Freedom shapes tech policy in order to facilitate an open and just society, in which people can hold power accountable and effectively question the status quo.”

$25,000 to the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)

"The Competition Law Forum is a centre of excellence for European competition and antitrust policy and law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)."

$25,000 to the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2)

“UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2), housed in the UCLA Division of Social Sciences, is a critical internet studies community committed to reimagining technology, championing social justice, and strengthening human rights through research, culture, and public policy.”

$25,000 to Creative Commons (CC)

“Creative Commons (CC) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to building and sustaining a thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture that serves the public interest.”

$25,000 to Digital Rights Watch

"Digital Rights Watch is Australia's leading digital rights organisation. They defend and promote privacy, democracy, fairness and fundamental rights in the digital age."

$25,000 to Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF)

“The Society for Civil Rights e.V. (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. or "GFF") is a donor-funded organization from Germany that defends fundamental and human rights by legal means. The organization promotes democracy and civil society, protects against disproportionate surveillance and advocates for equal rights and social participation for everyone.”

$25,000 to OpenMedia

"OpenMedia is a community-driven organization that works to keep the Internet open, affordable, and surveillance-free. We operate as a civic engagement platform to educate, engage, and empower Internet users to advance digital rights around the world."

$25,000 to the Open Rights Group (ORG)

“Open Rights Group (ORG) is the UK’s largest grassroots digital rights campaigning organisation, working to protect everyone’s rights to privacy and free speech online.”

$25,000 to the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF)

“Open Source Technology Improvement Fund directly helps critical open source projects with their security needs and is extremely grateful for the continued support from DuckDuckGo. This funding is pivotal to ongoing operations and growth, as it is one of our only donation sources that is not tied to any deliverable or project. Over the past year, we have been able to sustainably help critical open source projects improve their security posture, and in the process have found and fixed over 100 significant bugs and vulnerabilities.”

$25,000 to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

“Privacy Rights Clearinghouse focuses on increasing access to information, policy discussions, and meaningful rights so that data privacy can be a reality for everyone.”

$25,000 to Restore the Fourth

“Restore the Fourth opposes mass government surveillance, and organizes locally and nationally to defend privacy and the Fourth Amendment.”

$25,000 to Tactical Tech

“Tactical Tech is an international NGO that, for over 20 years, has engaged with citizens and civil society organisations to explore and mitigate the impacts of technology on society.”

$25,000 to the Tor Project

“At the Tor Project, we believe everyone should be able to explore the internet with privacy. We advance human rights and defend your privacy online through free, open source software and the decentralized Tor network.”