
DuckDuckGo Donates $300K to Raise the Standard of Trust Online - AdamSC1
https://spreadprivacy.com/2017-donations-d6e4e4230b88#.kazx95v27
======
AdamSC1
_Disclaimer:_ I work at DuckDuckGo and this is on our company blog at
spreadprivacy.com

At DuckDuckGo our overall goal is to raise the standard of trust online. To do
that we've focused heavily on search, but try and support organizations that
push privacy forward in other ways.

For the 7th year in a row, we've announced our donations to organizations and
FOSS projects that help keep everyone a little safer in our digital world.

 __ _Donation Recipients:_ __

$100,000 - Freedom of the Press Foundation

$75,000 - World Privacy Forum

$29,000 - Whisper Systems

$25,000 - Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

$25,000 - Tor

$25,000 - Electronic Frontier Foundation

$5000 - American Civil Liberties Union

$5000 - Access Now

$2500 - The Calyx Institute

$2500 - Center for Democracy & Technology

$1000 - Restore the Fourth

$1000 - Patient Privacy Rights

$1000 - Online Trust Alliance

$1000 - Tech Freedom

$1000 - Demand Progress

~~~
nickpsecurity
How does DuckDuckGo make money and, if not confidential, what's revenues?

~~~
trancman
[https://duck.co/help/company/advertising-and-
affiliates](https://duck.co/help/company/advertising-and-affiliates)

I doubt you could get reliable revenue numbers

------
mbaltrusitis
I'm sincerely confused by people saying that DuckDuckGo has vastly inferior
search results. Mind you, I search mainly programing related things so maybe
DDG better services that niche? What types of searches are people doing that
DDG doesn't provide suitable results?

~~~
AbacusAvenger
My success rate with DuckDuckGo searches is noticeably lower than Google. I
always search on DuckDuckGo first and then fall back to Google if I can't find
what I'm looking for, which is about half the time. So I'm actually confused
about why you _don 't_ have problems with the search results!

So the search quality doesn't keep me attached to it. The main reason I keep
using DDG is because of the "bangs" feature:

[https://duckduckgo.com/bang](https://duckduckgo.com/bang)

So I can search for "104.20.44.44 !bgp" or things I've used bangs for in
recent searches like "ascension kit !nhw", "dark brotherhood !uesp", or
"samaxwelladams mass effect !yt" and instantly get what I'm looking for
without having to add a bunch of special search engines to my browser.

~~~
thomnottom
I don't know why it never occurred to me to try putting the bangs at the end
of the result, but you definitely just saved me a lot of future time I would
have spent jumping to the beginning of searches to edit them.

Seriously, thanks.

~~~
weaksauce
You can actually put them pretty much anywhere and it still works.

------
drallison
Kudos to DuckDuckGo for supporting these organizations which are trying to
keep everyone a little safer. HN readers who agree should donate to the
organization(s) with which they resonate. Even small donations can make
important differences.

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mrschwabe
DDG has been nailing it lately - really digging their Twitter feed too; they
do not pull punches.

~~~
aembleton
I switched a few weeks ago from Google to DDG. I didn't switch because of
privacy reasons but because I am now finding their search results superior.

That is helped by searching for things that are on Stackoverflow and DDG
presenting the answer clearly at the top.

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jasonkostempski
DDG has 300K to donate? I guess they're doing much better than I expected. How
in the world do they make money?

~~~
nathcd
Advertising and affiliate revenue. They show ads based on search terms.

[https://duck.co/help/company/advertising-and-
affiliates](https://duck.co/help/company/advertising-and-affiliates)

------
JimWestergren
Great. I think you should consider Let's Encrypt as well.

~~~
jaryd
That's a good point. We actually recently starting using them for internal/dev
resources. I'll definitely make a note of it for next year.

~~~
schoen
For anyone who wants to donate to directly support Let's Encrypt, its parent
entity is Internet Security Research Group, a 501(c)(3) charitable entity. You
can make donations to ISRG at
[https://letsencrypt.org/donate/](https://letsencrypt.org/donate/). Businesses
can also become formally recognized sponsors at
[https://letsencrypt.org/become-a-sponsor/](https://letsencrypt.org/become-a-
sponsor/) (though that might not match the giving patterns or preferences of
DuckDuckGo).

Thanks to DuckDuckGo for all of its donations this year and other years.

------
bsclifton
I just recently (last week) switched over to DDG; it's been solid- I've gotten
really great results versus last time I tried them out (5 or 6 months ago?)

I love their vision, the services they provide, and what they've done here
(with the donations) <3

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X86BSD
I've moved all our devices to DDG recently. It used to be goog on all our
idevices. Mainly I was just to lazy. But I like DDG results and the engine and
that they give back. Also they use FreeBSD which is a plus.

Seems like a great company and search engine to me.

~~~
theandrewbailey
"Our devices"? I don't understand. Do you mean your company's devices? Your
family's devices? Your household's devices?

~~~
X86BSD
Family.

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joe563323
The one thing that is mildly disturbing about DuckDuckGo is its founder did
not have privacy in mind while building. In one interview about a couple of
years ago he told explicitly that DuckDuckGo became privacy focused because of
the market for privacy and not because of his personal belief in privacy.

~~~
anilgulecha
That's fine.. If the idealism-based push for privacy isn't doing so well,
maybe the business-based push will. We can definitely fight through all
available avenues.

~~~
joe563323
yes. But for that we must be aware of the historical context. I was just
biased that some one like RMS (Richard Stallman) who is both capable and
strong willed has started the project but surprised to find market drove it.
But surely market for privacy got created because of the idealism-based
peoples sacrifice.

------
almost_usual
I've been using 100% DuckDuckGo in combination with Brave browser for the past
3 months and have not looked back.

~~~
rthomas6
Can you talk about using Brave Browser, and what you like about it over
Firefox? Why should I make the switch over ff + ublock + umatrix?

~~~
nilved
The fact that a significant subset of websites are broken in mobile Firefox.

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thr0waway1239
It seems the fastest way to spread privacy is to bring a sudden stop to its
erosion. My suggestion: ban all acquisitions by the top software companies for
the next 5 years :-)

As a bonus, you will foist some competition on the market as companies which
thought they were on an acquisition path will now be forced to show real
profits.

------
twsted
More than two years using DDG on every device, very satisfied. I'm suggesting
it to everybody.

------
snackai
Great to see support for all those important projects, but maybe DDG should
use that money to hire someone who makes their Search Results better so we
would not have to go back to Google on every other more sophisticated search.

~~~
lettergram
I have to say, I use DDG regularly for search and switched about a month ago.
Honestly, I have had little issue with it besides the occasional switch to
Google when searching for super random very niche things.

The real trick, is to just start using it and force yourself to. It's really
not too bad, and there is always startpage, which you can use as backup.

For reference, I use Firefox on mobile and desktop and when I type in a search
I can select which search engine to use. By default I have DDG, and with one
click I can get startpage or Google.

~~~
bykovich
Yes, I can't say that there's much I love more than forcing myself use a tool
that's "not really too bad." DDG seems like they're really providing a stellar
product.

~~~
lettergram
Their product is search that doesn't track you. The search portion is not too
bad, as in it does it's job and I feel happy to use it (although not super
excited).

However, search is essentially a commodity.

DuckDuckGo has provided additional value which is that you aren't tracked.
That, in my opinion, is what makes this a good (stellar) product, that I want
to use every day.

~~~
snackai
The use Bing ads and affiliate links to monetize. Nice, that "they" don't
track me, but as soon as I click a link there I will be tracked. That argument
is utter Bullshit. Only real plus point is, that even if they track it's not
in Googles Data Silo.

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technologyvault
Great idea, but it seems like it's going to take a lot more than $300k, right?

~~~
ysavir
Very true. Have you considered donating?

~~~
technologyvault
Maybe I should.

Where do you go to donate?

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Dirlewanger
DuckDuckGo most likely tracks everything users do. Their founder sold his
previous startup along with all its user's data. Outside of the cozy story
they spin, I don't know why users think this company is a champion of user
privacy.

~~~
rthomas6
Do you think they're lying on their privacy policy? Isn't that illegal?

~~~
nilved
Oh no! Not illegal!

