And you suspect DDG first and not the social media company known for spying on everyone?
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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Privacy
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How about you do experimentation, then share anything to support your claim.
I suggest to stop using Instagram, also if you are concerned about it, DDG is US based, you may find other alternatives online.
What is the deal with being US-based? As if the EU isn't trying to end encryption entirely or other countries don't reciprocate US subpoenas. Honest question
Because depending the jurisdiction of a country your privacy could just mean nothing, for example while using VPNs or VPSs you are at risky of getting logged or censored if you using a service located on a country with a bad jurisdiction, mainly the countries that have the power to request compaines to share the logs of a specific user (like the USA) should be actively avoided.
the countries that have the power to request compaines to share the logs of a specific user (like the USA) should be actively avoided.
...that's every country.
No :L
Go on then, which countries don't
And your sure it's not Instagram/meta capturing data on the browser or whatever you use for ddg. Do you block all cookies. Have your devices been profiled or is the website you click on selling data to meta. Are you logged in on the same device. Are you inspecting traffic and seeing meta traffick when on ddg while not on insta
I'm not saying ddg would not sell your data but this would torpedo there whole selling point. You could describe the task you have done to mask your identity and then what you suspect they are doing.
This right here. If you use any of Meta's services (spyware), you likely granted it permission to rummage through your data. If you have an open browser tab, it can pull info from it.
If you have an open browser tab, it can pull info from it.
Please elaborate on what you mean here.
Goes against https://duckduckgo.com/privacy which is basically also their main selling point. If they don't have that, they have nothing. So... FUD until you do have data. You clearly did run an experiment, show us the proof.
Some things that happen when I go to duckduckgo.com that also go against that:
- Harvesting the third-party cookies it can (example: github.com)
- Attempting to enumerate browser extensions
- Attempting to enumerate crypto wallet addresses from extension wallets like MetaMask
It's extremely nosy. They used to do canvas fingerprinting until browsers started prompting about it.
IDK about the claim of directly selling searches to IG and likely it's a bit more convoluted than that (or OP has malware) but it's a more believable idea than that of DDG actually being respectful of user privacy. There is absolutely no legitimate reason for DDG to gather this data for the purpose of providing their search service, yet they do.
I believe you're talking absolute nonsense.
That's 1-1, no clear winner as of yet.
Instagram/Meta is the problem here; if you are concerned about privacy and the effect of Instagram/Meta in your life, the solution is not to alienate services that (you think) work with Meta, but rather, to just cut Meta out.
Apple works with Google: Google pays Apple billions to be the default search. I still use an iPhone because it's more private than a (stock) Android phone. Yes, Apple has business dealings with Google, who I want to avoid, but I can make them concern me less by changing my default search to (and, disclaimer of bias here) DuckDuckGo. (To clarify, an Android phone can be more private than an iPhone if you use certain custom firmware, such as GrapheneOS, but you still have to throw money at Google to do so as they only provide their CFW for Google Pixel phones, though they are rumoured to be working with another hardware manufacturer to cut Google out entirely — I am very interested in what they will be offering.)
Ddg is a proxy for Bing which is owned by Microsoft. Let that sink in.
Clarification: DuckDuckGo uses Bing for search on the back end and passes results back and forth anonymously — or so they've said. I don't have the koalafications to verify. No, that wasn't a typo. Randomly popped in my head (from a meme years ago), so I'm leaving it. Deal with it and take the rest of my post just as seriously if you know better. ;)
i vaguely remember their images being hosted directly by Bing, maybe it's changed?