DuckDuckGo not liberal enough?

FanboyStudios

On a side note, here's a screenshot from my PiHole of DuckDuckGo tracking getting blocked.

"We don't track users." - DuckDuckGo
Also DuckDuckGo: tracks users

tomscharbach

FanboyStudios On a side note, here's a screenshot from my PiHole of DuckDuckGo tracking getting blocked.

I assume that you understand what data DuckDuckGo is collecting, and why. If you don't want it, turn it off, or don't use DuckDuckGo as your search engine.

FanboyStudios "We don't track users." - DuckDuckGo
Also DuckDuckGo: tracks users

Read the link above and I think you will have a better understanding.

DISCLAIMER: I do not use or promote the use of DuckDuckGo, and have no interest in doing so.

kyrios

All I have are the following... it looks like the problem lies on your end

duckduckgo.com
external-content.duckduckgo.com
improving.duckduckgo.com
links.duckduckgo.com

FanboyStudios

tomscharbach

WetGeek

If you folks are truly interested in who may be trying to track you, then you should be using Vivaldi as your browser. It's new Show Privacy Statistics option on the Speed Dial page is quite telling. For example, I've had this session of Vivaldi open for just a few minutes, and this is what those statistics look like:

Note that these are attempted trackers and attempted ads that didn't get past Vivaldi.

If you click on the other end of that bar, you'll see:

Click that, and a dialog shows you who or what tried to track you.

Just one more reason why Vivaldi is the greatest browser ever. And improving every day.

As you can see, these attempts were blocked in the previous 26 minutes. A little while ago, when Viivaldi had been running for longer, there were 22,000+ tracking attempts that were blocked, and a few thousand adds blocked.

WetGeek

WetGeek As you can see, these attempts were blocked in the previous 26 minutes.

To be honest, I have a lot of tabs in tab stacks, so my blocked trackers and adds might be a lot more than those tracking you. A good way to find out would be to start Vivaldi, open the same tabs you normally use, and browse for a few minutes.

Then take a look at the statistics your browsing behavior has produced. And remember, those aren't ones that got through to you -- they the ones Vivaldi prevented from doing that,.

kyrios

WetGeek Just one more reason why Vivaldi is the greatest browser ever. And improving every day.

I fail to see why Vivaldi is the greatest browser because of this since all browsers offer this feature for years via extensions

WetGeek

kyrios

Indeed. And I've used those extensions ever since they've been available. But Vivaldi doesn't need any extensions to do this for you.

It's not just because of that. Vivaldi has many more unique features, but you probably know about those, too.

WetGeek

kyrios I fail to see why Vivaldi is the greatest browser because of this since all browsers

Okay, I've carefully reviewed all of Firefox's settings now, and I'm ready to admit that Vivaldi is one of the greatest browsers available to us. Firefox has improved a lot since I last spent much time with it, and I'm glad to see that.

Thanks again for bringing it to my attention.

WetGeek

Then take a look at the statistics your browsing behavior has produced. And remember, those aren't ones that got through to you -- they the ones Vivaldi prevented from doing that,

And by the way, I have Google everything disabled in my Vivaldi settings.

Staudey

WetGeek Indeed. And I've used those extensions ever since they've been available. But Vivaldi doesn't need any extensions to do this for you.

FWIW Firefox also has built-in tracking protection with similar statistics.

brent

Staudey I like that FF is uber-configurable in this dept. "From pedestrian to tin foil they have you covered." (I should copywright that).

WetGeek

Staudey FWIW Firefox also has built-in tracking protection with similar statistics.

I'm glad of that. I use Firefox every day on our media machine to stream local TV stations thanks to its support for geolocation data. And I contribute monthly to Mozilla, so I have nothing against Fireffox.

But if it offered everything that Vivaldi does, I'd be using it on every computer here, not just one.

I didn't realize that Firefox finally had tracker and add blocking built-in, though. I'd always used UBlockOrigin on it.
Thanks for letting me know. It's probably time I took another look at its settings.

brent

WetGeek to be fair to Vivaldi, it's a reasonable policy:
"When you install Vivaldi browser (“Vivaldi”), each installation profile is assigned a unique user ID that is stored on your computer. Vivaldi will send a message using HTTPS directly to our servers located in Iceland every 24 hours containing this ID, version, cpu architecture, screen resolution and time since last message. We anonymize the IP address of Vivaldi users by removing the last octet of the IP address from your Vivaldi client then we store the resolved approximate location after using a local geoip lookup. The purpose of this collection is to determine the total number of active users and their geographical distribution.

Vivaldi includes various links to websites in the browser default bookmarks. Some of those websites are partners of Vivaldi AS and some are not. Vivaldi AS receives shared revenue from those bookmark partners. That’s how we are able to provide this software free of charge to our users and continue to stay awesome!"---
They are completely in love google services OOTB but at least they let you disable all of them, down to auto-fill.
Browsers have to be the most subjective thing in the world after movies and tv shows🙂

edit: I stick with FF because of the complete freedom to dial it in 'under the hood' (about:config). I will praise FF for this: with every new tracking threat or tracking trend, they have minutiae you can enable/disable under the hood to beat it.

joluveba

WetGeek I didn't realize that Firefox finally had tracker and add blocking built-in, though. I'd always used UBlockOrigin on it.

Actually, to be fair, it blocks only trackers, not adds (although it may block some adds as a secondary effect). The Vivaldi built-in blocker blocks both trackers and adds. This is not a slight on Firefox, Ublock Origin works great on Firefox, and when I use Vivaldi I deactivate the built-in blocker and use Ublock Origin instead, I like it better.

WetGeek

brent Vivaldi includes various links to websites in the browser default bookmarks.

They sure do. And when I set up a new Vivaldi instance on a computer (or VM) the first thing I do is rmove all those bookmarks. Then I replace them with my own, and create tab stacks using those.

FanboyStudios

joluveba

Vivaldi's Ad and Tracker Blocker is also customizable. You can even disable Vivaldi's sponsored ads allow list.

BTW, I use both Ublock Origin and Vivaldi's built-in adblocker... along with my PiHole VPN.
I also use Privacy Badger and Decentraleyes. I have several layers of blocking lol.

brent

FanboyStudios The EFFs badger is getting a thrashing these days and I don't know why but I don't use it anyways. All browsers can force to HTTPS..rendering that Everywhere extension moot. After using UMatrix I will never bother with Origin again. I'm not sure if its Vivaldi, but even 'built in ad blockers' screens against a list (like safe search) that may or may not be with google.
that's what i believe I know, anyways.

tomscharbach

FanboyStudios: "YOU ARE BEING SPIED ON"

Well, yeah. Welcome to online.

As I noted in my earlier comment, I don't use or endorse the use of DuckDuckGo, but I don't think DuckDuckGo's data gathering is a big deal, given what is actually collected. But we've been through that discussion, and we don't agree. So follow my lead and don't use the product if you are worried about it.

It cracks me up, to some extent, how frequently folks focus on the minutia about this or that browser and/or search engine but don't use private browsing, VPN, tab-close and on-close history and cookie deletion, and other basic mitigation tools to reduce data collection. And I'm amused by the fact that these same people use Android smartphones (Googled up the butt), drive around with online tracking enabled in their vehicles, use credit cards, GPS location/routing maps on mobile devices, and so on, without so much as giving the privacy risks from those activities any thought at all.

If we use modern technology, we leave huge data trails behind us. It is a simple fact of life. We can reduce/mitigate the trail to some extent, but obsessing about minutia is like worrying about a wart when cancer is eating your liver.

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