(Not just little companies you've never heard of: They even went after Facebook!) The way privacy law works in the US is, basically, there are almost no privacy rules that restrict what information web sites can collect - except that if they have a privacy policy, they must abide by it. The FTC has filed lawsuits after companies that violate their own advertised privacy policy. It is a model of clarity, plain language, and lack of legal obfuscation.Īnd privacy policies have bite.

And, as far as I can see, DuckDuckGo's privacy policy seems like a model privacy policy. Those are pretty strong promises, with no weasel-wording. DuckDuckGo says it doesn't track you, it doesn't send your searches to other sites, by default it does not use any cookies, it does not collect personal information, it does not log your IP address or other information about your computer that may be sent automatically with your searches, it doesn't store any personal information at all. (There never is, on the web.) However, that is the wrong question.ĭuckDuckGo is very clear in its privacy policy. And then there’s the fact that MapKit JS isn’t the full Apple Maps experience at all.There is no proof that DuckDuckGo operates as advertised. Businesses may think to update their Google Maps listings long before they consider doing so for Apple Maps. Without the huge number of searches performed on competing platforms, there’s less (anonymous) data to pull from in terms of improving the service. The service is primarily available via dedicated apps to users of Apple devices like the iPhone and Mac, and this severely limits the number of people who can use it. While Apple Maps has come a long way since its questionable launch alongside iOS 6 in 2012, it still can’t compete with Google or Bing in terms of features or search results. RELATED: Can Websites See Your Physical Location? Privacy at the Cost of Convenience and Features

DuckDuckGo does not seem to be subject to these same limits, which may suggest that the search engine has cut a special deal with Apple. One interesting caveat to MapKit JS is that most applications that use it are limited to 250,000 map calls and 25,000 service calls each day.

How private is duckduckgo