DuckDuckGo is looking to expand, with its first goal being a privacy-first oriented browser service for desktops, looking to give the likes of Google Chrome some competition to deal with.
The project was revealed by CEO Gabriel Weinberg in a blog post through the company website. In the post, Weinberg refers to the new browser as part of DuckDuckGo’s initiative to build a “privacy super app”. This movement started a while back with the introduction and implementation of the DuckDuckGo app, which is currently available on the Google Play Store for Android, and the App Store for iOS devices, i.e. iPhones and iPads. The app’s premise is to provide privacy tools and options to devices that typically may not have them. While that definitely may be an easier job with the likes of Apple products, what with the company having introduced Tracking/Transparency to iOS 14 in 2020, the same cannot be said for Android devices. Moreover, DuckDuckGo is intent on providing privacy-oriented tools that are simple and accessible for users, actively going around making them too complex to use and therefore turning users off of the entire concept.
It’s very easy to believe that any modicum of online privacy is completely unachievable; it was a concept that I was fully sold on as far as last year. There is some truth to such a statement as well, since online platforms have disseminated the likes of cookies and targeted ads so widely and effectively that users can’t really go online without immediately exposing themselves to some form of unwilling personal information exchange. Governments are in the loop with such platforms as well, and this is no conspiracy-mongering from our side. Social media platforms often report the number of times governments ask them for user information, and the exact number of times that they end up giving over such details. It’s a nightmare, really, that we’re fully stuck with unless major social reform occurs over such online practices.
DuckDuckGo’s latest browser app is geared towards macOS, finally bringing the company’s privacy-first ideals to Apple desktops. With the app’s target being an Apple-user audience, and DuckDuckGo’s general disdain for Google’s regular invasion of user privacy, the new browser will not be built upon the open-source Chromium code. Instead, it will rely on OS-provided rendering services to build the new platforms. Features are expected to be similar to the ones already provided by the mobile app: A Fire Button to clear up all user data across browsers; tracker blocking services that warn users before they divulge private information to the likes of platforms such as Facebook; and removing trackers from emails.
Online privacy is difficult to achieve, but it isn’t impossible, and platforms such as DuckDuckGo are intent on helping users do so.
Read next: New Poll Reveals A Majority Of Americans Want More Government Control of Social Media Companies
The project was revealed by CEO Gabriel Weinberg in a blog post through the company website. In the post, Weinberg refers to the new browser as part of DuckDuckGo’s initiative to build a “privacy super app”. This movement started a while back with the introduction and implementation of the DuckDuckGo app, which is currently available on the Google Play Store for Android, and the App Store for iOS devices, i.e. iPhones and iPads. The app’s premise is to provide privacy tools and options to devices that typically may not have them. While that definitely may be an easier job with the likes of Apple products, what with the company having introduced Tracking/Transparency to iOS 14 in 2020, the same cannot be said for Android devices. Moreover, DuckDuckGo is intent on providing privacy-oriented tools that are simple and accessible for users, actively going around making them too complex to use and therefore turning users off of the entire concept.
It’s very easy to believe that any modicum of online privacy is completely unachievable; it was a concept that I was fully sold on as far as last year. There is some truth to such a statement as well, since online platforms have disseminated the likes of cookies and targeted ads so widely and effectively that users can’t really go online without immediately exposing themselves to some form of unwilling personal information exchange. Governments are in the loop with such platforms as well, and this is no conspiracy-mongering from our side. Social media platforms often report the number of times governments ask them for user information, and the exact number of times that they end up giving over such details. It’s a nightmare, really, that we’re fully stuck with unless major social reform occurs over such online practices.
DuckDuckGo’s latest browser app is geared towards macOS, finally bringing the company’s privacy-first ideals to Apple desktops. With the app’s target being an Apple-user audience, and DuckDuckGo’s general disdain for Google’s regular invasion of user privacy, the new browser will not be built upon the open-source Chromium code. Instead, it will rely on OS-provided rendering services to build the new platforms. Features are expected to be similar to the ones already provided by the mobile app: A Fire Button to clear up all user data across browsers; tracker blocking services that warn users before they divulge private information to the likes of platforms such as Facebook; and removing trackers from emails.
Online privacy is difficult to achieve, but it isn’t impossible, and platforms such as DuckDuckGo are intent on helping users do so.
Read next: New Poll Reveals A Majority Of Americans Want More Government Control of Social Media Companies