Paul

DuckDuckGo doesn’t belong here DuckDuckGo doesn’t operate its own search index. When you run a query, it gets proxied to Microsoft Bing. DDG anonymizes the request, but the results, the ranking algorithms, and the underlying infrastructure belong to Microsoft. In May 2022, security researcher Zach Edwards discovered that DDG’s mobile browser selectively blocked trackers. Allowed Microsoft’s msclkid. @BrendanEich documented the technical details: Microsoft’s msclkid exists specifically to circumvent third-party cookie protections. DDG knew this. They blocked equivalent parameters from competitors but exempted their business partner. CEO Gabriel Weinberg confirmed the cause: their search syndication contract with Microsoft limited what they could block. The privacy product was architecturally compromised by a revenue agreement. DDG patched this in August 2022 after the backlash. But the episode revealed something important: when business obligations conflicted with privacy promises, business won until they got caught. In March 2022, Weinberg announced DDG would begin “down-ranking sites associated with Russian disinformation,” specifically naming RT and Sputnik. Whatever your position on that content, this marked a fundamental shift. DDG had marketed itself as “unbiased search” that didn’t filter results based on editorial judgment. The company makes centralized decisions about what information users should see. That’s their right as a private platform, but it’s a different product than what was advertised.