DuckDuckGo hits 100 billion all time searches

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29 pointsbncy6 comments

DDG does A/B testing and other questionable things that do not get disclosed transparently to the user: https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/privacy/at.... I think I'll stick to Searx.

Wait, isn't this very page you linked them "disclosing it transparently to the user"? Or are you talking about the content of it not being transparent enough for you?

This is mentioned nowhere in the privacy policy, and it's not at all clear to me that the things that are mentioned on that page are not identifiable. The requests being made to improving.duckduckgo.com, according to the browser console, contain things like browser, OS, language preferences, etc. Take a look at this: https://duckduckgo.com/util/u598.js.

What is bad about A/B testing?

It creates an incentive to track users (e.g. to find out which users pass the A test).

Also, in this case there is no way to opt out.

Brilliant, I've switched to DDG recently and have been very pleased with it

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