DuckDuckGo tracks you

6 points

12 years ago

Google's deception is well known - search for "test", hover the mouse over the first result and you see the speedtest link, but if you right-click on that link, you can see on the status bar at the bottom (is that why the status bar not visible by default?) that the link to speedtest is channeled through Google first, so they know what you click, but pretend that they don't. Google being an ad company pretending to be a tech giant, no surprise here.

Now, to DuckDuckGo, or "we don't track you"... Unlike Google, they show you the target link when you hover and when you right-click, but they dynamically modify your link to channel your click through their system, just like Google does, only with a more sophisticated deception technique. If your internet connection is slow, or if if you switch it off, you can see that false link right there in address bar. It can also be seen sometimes when you don;t move the mouse and hit the back button on your mouse while staying on that link.

Bing does not seem to be doing any of these, or at least I didn't notice. Perhaps WireShark can be of use.

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