DuckDuckGo

Duck Tales 🎬 A behind-the-scenes look at DuckDuckGo Ep.23: AI is everywhere. Did anyone give you a choice? We let users choose if and how they use AI. Full episode: insideduckduckgo.substack.com/p/duck-tales-w… | 'Inside DuckDuckGo' on Spotify

Want more powerful AI? We have a subscription plan for you. Pro has 2x higher usage limits than our Plus plan, the highest reasoning available on DuckAI and exclusive access to Claude Opus 4.6. On top of our VPN and other protections! Learn more: spreadprivacy.com/pro-subscripti…

DuckDuckGo adds reasoning models to its privacy-focused chatbot hub 9to5mac.com/2026/03/17/duc… by @mvcmendes

Reasoning models give more thorough answers, but responses take longer, so we added a new toggle to GPT-5.2. Switch it on when you need powerful problem-solving, and switch it off for quick answers, all within the same conversation. (Or not! Our AI tools are always optional.)

If you use AI for complicated tasks, good news: DuckAI now includes more powerful reasoning models! Pick GPT-5 mini (free) or GPT 5.2 (paid) for your more complex questions. Once you get an answer, inspect the reasoning to see how the AI got there, with links to web sources.

Duck Tales 🎬 A behind-the-scenes look at DuckDuckGo Ep.22: Why are we building our own web search index? And why does it matter? Full episode: insideduckduckgo.substack.com/p/duck-tales-w… | 'Inside DuckDuckGo' on Spotify

Duck Tales 🎬 A behind-the-scenes look at DuckDuckGo Ep.21: Browser onboarding — how we use delight, demos, and Dax (our mascot) to improve the user experience, and drive long-term retention. Full episode: insideduckduckgo.substack.com/p/duck-tales-b… | 'Inside DuckDuckGo' on Spotify

@alex_prompter That's why we have Duck.ai. It's private by default, and your conversations with these models can't be used to train them.

🚨 Holy shit… Stanford just exposed that every major AI company is using your private conversations to train their models by default. They analyzed the privacy policies of OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Amazon. Reviewed 28 separate documents across all 6 companies. The findings are worrisome. Every prompt you type. Every file you upload. Every personal detail you share. All of it feeds directly into model training the moment you hit send. That health question you asked ChatGPT at 2am? Training data. Legal situation you described to Claude? Training data. The photo you uploaded to Gemini? Training data. Some companies retain your conversations INDEFINITELY. Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI have no confirmed deletion timeline for certain chat data. Your most private conversations could sit on their servers forever. It gets worse for kids. Four out of six companies allow children aged 13-18 to use their chatbots, and most don’t treat children’s data any differently. Kids’ conversations are likely getting fed into model training by default. Kids who can’t legally consent to it. Here’s something most people missed: enterprise customers are opted OUT of training by default. You, the consumer paying $20/month? Opted IN. Companies paying thousands? Protected automatically. There’s a two-tiered privacy system and you’re on the wrong side of it. OpenAI even frames the opt-in with guilt. Their settings page says “Improve the model for everyone.” Stanford’s researchers flagged this as a textbook dark pattern designed to make you feel bad for protecting your own data. Meta’s contractors told reporters they routinely see identifiable personal information in the chat data they review. Journalists were able to positively identify at least one real person from chat transcripts shared with them. The privacy policies themselves? Stanford had to dig through 6 separate documents just for OpenAI alone. Most real disclosures were buried in sub-policies no normal person would ever find. The researchers said it was challenging for THEM to piece it together. For consumers? “Practically impossible.” Only Microsoft explicitly stated they try to remove personal data like names, phone numbers, and addresses before training. The rest are either vague about it or completely silent.

@Pokemon Happy Pokémon day to Browt🌱 Birds of a feather flock together, ya know.

Introducing the first partner Pokémon from #PokemonWindsWaves! Say hello to Browt 🌱, Pombon 🔥, and Gecqua 💧. Who will you partner with on this adventure, Trainers?

@Duzty_Bunz Deal. Tell us more about what you think it should look like and we'll see what we can do 🤝

@DuckDuckGo If you make a Supernatural one I'll use your browser forever I'm so serious

Did you know Dax the duck changes sometimes depending on what you search on DuckDuckGo? Give it a try and see what happens. (Sailor Moon fans, we got you covered.)

Share suggestions with us here 👇 duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-hel…

Have you found any hidden logos when searching that surprised you?

@WheresWaldoYT haha, nice! what a revelation to find one's self 😀

@DuckDuckGo Found me!

@GremmPaltakin Nope! All searches are anonymous. The logo changes based on the search term (the same way our ads do), not based on who you are or anything about you.

@DuckDuckGo so you are tracking searches

Did you know Dax the duck changes sometimes depending on what you search on DuckDuckGo? Give it a try and see what happens. (Mario fans, we got you covered.)

@ravlun Hi Jenn, thanks for your note. All searches are anonymous, we're not spying. The logo changes based on the search term (the same way our ads do), not based on who you are or anything about you.

@DuckDuckGo Speaking as someone who has used DuckDuckGo for years and recommended it to others, we don’t want this. The whole purpose of DuckDuckGo is the privacy. We don’t want anyone spying on our online activity, including you!

Did you know Dax the duck changes sometimes depending on what you search on DuckDuckGo? Give it a try and see what happens. (Wordle fans, we got you covered.)

@nekozukikei Good spot 👀We have hundreds of these hidden logos, let us know if you have any suggestions duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-hel…

Today I accidentally discovered an easter egg on DuckDuckGo: if you search for "hydra", the logo to the left of the search bar changes to something different. Anyway, the thing I was actually looking for is spelled Ghidra.

@wacsgg Getting these types of notes is the best. We're making more, drop us a line if you have suggestions duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-hel…

@DuckDuckGo i found your hydra easter egg! i love it

@dreampillet We've added to the consideration list, thanks for the idea! If you have any more, feel free to drop them here duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-hel…

"expressionism" on the other hand, doesn't have an easter egg unfortunately 😔.

I just found an Easter egg on duckduckgo! If you look up "Impressionism" the duck logo will change to a depiction in that style!

@crimsonashtree We've added to the consideration list, thanks for the idea! If you have any more, feel free to drop them here duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-hel…

Hi @DuckDuckGo, love your character easter eggs like the iconic Cloud Strife from #FinalFantasy7! Any chance you could add Connor from #DetroitBecomeHuman as well? Mockup for reference 🔎🪿

@djvd we'll take the suggestions on board (if you want to help with the look, you can do so by submitting info here duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-hel… Try "cubism"! And, not quite the same but "Bob Ross" is a fun one 😀

@DuckDuckGo A few I treid yesterday but with no luck: van gogh, mondriaan, modernism, structuralism

We're making more custom Dax logos for our search engine and need your input. Which characters are we missing? Who should Dax be next?