#DuckDuckGo

[themandylion]

DuckDuckGo, I am disappoint. :\

[soulofkole]

I'm sure most of ya already knew this. 💚 I try to do the best I can at reducing my carbon footprint but companies make it so hard these days and they shouldn't. They should have options to opt out of using as much AI as you can or all of it. And to the people who don't know this and think like Trump where you're gonna get "beachfront properties" 🤦‍♀️...I hate to tell you this but that's not what is going to happen. What will happen is MASSIVE sinkholes, tsunami's, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, severe winds and rain and snow; it's not just a rise or decrease in water. It can cause an environmental apocalypse that will reduce the world to nothing but rubble.

[jmtorres]

tech tip

you know the bullshit about youtube forcing a five second delay if you are using firefox? and its other anti-ad-blocking nonsense?

i have my default search engine set to duckduckgo. when you click on search results for a youtube video in DuckDuckGo, it asks you do you wanna go watch it on YouTube where there's lots of tracking or do you wanna play it here? -- and if you select here on DuckDuckGo: 

there's no delay

there's no ads

nothing else autoplays after

I realize this is not ideal for people who like use YouTube playlists or subscribe to channels  but for the casual user who wants to watch an single video it's perfecto

[tilbageidanmark]

Woof

Woof

Woof

[netscapenavigator-official]

Hmm. I just noticed something odd: It seems like DuckDuckGo is utilizing AI Summaries for web results, and they don't allow you to turn this off.

In their "AI Features" settings tab, you can only toggle their AI Chat and their AI Quick Answers that occasionally pop up. There is ZERO mention of this feature, despite it being pretty clear (to me anyway) that they're using some type of neural computing to create those result summaries. (Hence the difference in descriptions for the #1 result with and without "fuck" added.)

Maybe something else is going on that I'm not aware of or don't understand, but it's certainly a disappointing amount of non-transparency from DuckDuckGo when they're trying to build a privacy-focused and trustworthy brand identity.

[abbiistabbii]

Quick lists of "Alternative" software/websites I use:

Firefox (as an alternative to Chrome): Especially for the ad blocking capability. Use on both Phone and Computer.

DuckDuckGo (as an alternative to Google): No longer the thing your paranoid uncle uses, now an actually good search engine with the lack of tracking being a plus.

Kubuntu (as an alternative to Windows 11): My current Linux Distro and the best for people leaving Windows for Linux for the first time. Also KDE is Goated now.

LibreOffice (as an alternative to Microsoft Office): Works with MS-office formats and is FOSS, great if you don't trust google but need office software.

GIMP (as an alternative to Photoshop) because fuck Adobe.

Kdenlive (as an alternative to Premiere) because again, fuck Adobe.

OpenStreetMaps (as an alternative to Google maps): Tends to update quicker and is more detailed because everything is done by volunteers on the ground.

Krita (Alternative to ProCreate): Great painting app.

[dreamerinsilico]

You’ve heard of the browser wars....

I just recently made a long-overdue defection in the search engine wars, and I’m entirely pleased with it. 

You know how shitty Google results are when you need some fairly niche information that won’t be in a Wikipedia article, mainstream news, or some shitty celebrity gossip outlet, these days?

DuckDuckGo has cleared my skin, watered my crops, etc.  I was kind of ambiently glad it existed for a long time, but was like “well, privacy good, but my infosec practices are already sketchy at best, and google’s been doing this for a long-ass time; they’re probably better at it, so why bother.”  But no, my friends, google is better at something but these days that something is delivering clickbait to your fucking eyeballs.

I was frustrated with a very specific science question the other day and getting absolutely fucking nowhere with google, swapped over to duckduckgo on a curious whim, and it... didn’t get me exactly what I needed immediately, but it did give MUCH more relevant search results than google did.  And that’s, well, because enshittification.  Maybe someday, duckduckgo will also live to see itself become the villain, but for right now, it’s fucking useful, and it is now my default search engine on every device I use (and also every work computer i have reason to touch).

[para-dweller]

Privacy is in a terrible situation right now.

Especially on the internet. You know, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter(X), Apple, and even Tumblr all collect information about you to show you scarily accurate advertisements among other things.

Why does this matter?

This isn't about hiding information, it's about protecting information. You wouldn't let me know your entire life, your diary, all your photos and text messages, so why do you let random companies do the same?

Privacy Guides - Why Privacy Matters

So how do you stop this?

You can't. But you can lessen this. So I'm going to show you a non-exhaustive list of what I've used and what I know of that may help your privacy. I would recommend you go to privacyguides.org after if you want a better explanation. I'm just here to show you cool things.

Disclaimer

I am not a library on this sort of information and this is what I choose to use. I may be incorrect and you may have differing opinions. Also, this may be too extreme for everybody. Use what works for you. Again, I would recommend you go to privacyguides.org after you read this for a more in-depth and better explanation.

VPNs

You know what a VPN is. You've seen the sponsorships. VPNs are one of the most popular privacy tools, but know that they are not the only tool that you'd need. This list is evidence of that.

I would recommend Proton VPN, Mullvad, and IVPN for most users, as they provide a far better amount of privacy and features than VPNs such as Nord VPN, Surfshark, and Express VPN. If you really want unlimited devices go with Windscribe.

I personally use Proton VPN due to the fact that I use their other services.

Browsers

You should probably know that Google Chrome is basically spyware at this point. The issue here is, almost all Chromium-based browsers are. These include, Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. The only real exception would be Brave, but they've got leadership issues, which may not be a deal breaker for you.

So what do you use? A Firefox-based browser. This obviously includes Firefox, but most Firefox-based browsers are privacy-focused. The browsers that I recommend are Firefox, Librewolf, the Mullvad Browser, Waterfox, and Brave.

There is also the Tor Browser, but that is a whole 'nother can of worms that I will not go into. All I will say is that if you are in a high-risk environment(such as an oppressive regime) or you need absolutely no one to know that you searched that one thing, you may want to use the browser for anonymity.

I use Firefox as my main browser, with Brave as the browser that I use if something doesn't work on Firefox. I also use Tor if it is a high-risk situation.

Search Engines

Google, Bing, and Yahoo! all log your searches, you need alternatives. This is relatively straight-forward.

I recommend, Qwant, DuckDuckGo, SearXNG, Brave Search, and Startpage. Both Qwant and DuckDuckGo are fairly similar as they both use Bing search results and say that they don't track you. SearXNG is more complex, and I will not go into detail here. If you really want Google search results, use Startpage. And if you don't want your search to rely on Bing or Google, use Brave Search.

I use Qwant, mainly just cause its European.

Passwords

Passwords are the keys to your digital life. And most of the time they're not that great. You know the drill here, make passwords like this- XmaE7PEj2hq9ed$w - but you can't really remember them. For that you need a password manager.

I recommend Bitwarden, Proton Pass, and KeepassXC. Bitwarden and Proton Pass are more convenient, but you are trusting a single entity, reputable ones, but still. KeepassXC isn't as convienent, but you have near full control over what happens to it.

I use Proton Pass, as I use other Proton services.

Email

Email is identity, you almost always use your email in order to register for sites like Tumblr, and sites that aren't anything like Tumblr. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! all use your email inbox in order to gain more information about you for their companies. There are quite a few email providers, but I've only used and recommend two.

I recommend Proton Mail and Tuta Mail. Both are good email providers, although Proton would be better if you use other Proton services, like I do.

I use both Proton Mail and Tuta Mail for separate email addresses.

Aliases

Email Aliases are also very important for private email. Your email is your name, if you want to private, you'd go under pseudonyms. That's what email aliases are.

I recommend and have used Simplelogin and Firefox Relay. Email providers like Proton and Tuta also give you aliases when you pay. I don't know how well these work, but I assume that they work the Same as Simplelogin and Firefox Relay.

I use Simplelogin.

Devices/OSes

Phones

Now let's turn up the extremity to 11 as we look at your devices. Phone-wise, avoid Apple, they say that they care about your privacy, but they don't. Apple is better than Google, but I'd only recommend using an iPhone if you already have one, and it still has support left. If that's the case, then follow privacy guides like this one by Techlore(His channel is also really great for privacy guides). You should probably use a Google Pixel. Sounds weird as it's owned by GOOGLE, one of the companies that we don't want to be tracked by, but if we go with the Pixels we can use custom ROMs.

Most ROMs exist for your privacy, they are based on the Android Open Source Project(AOSP) which means they can run most of your favourite Android apps without messing them up with Google. In order to run most of your apps however, you're going to need some way of running Google Play Services. This is a backbone black-box that Google forces most of your apps to use in order to function. CalyxOS and LineageOS with MicroG both have MicroG, an open source implementation of Google Play Services. GrapheneOS just straight up uses Google Play Services but sandboxes it so that it can't get its tentacles all up in your phone.

I recommend going like this:

You have a modern-ish Google Pixel phone, go with GrapheneOS.

You don't have a Google Pixel, but your phone is still supported by CalyxOS, go with CalyxOS.

Your phone isn't supported by either of these but still is supported by LineageOS with MicroG, go with LineageOS.

Your phone isn't supported by any of these, you can do as much degoogling as you can.

Techlore also has a fantastic guide on Android Privacy.

Desktops/Laptops

Apple isn't actually that bad here, its better than Windows at least. But Linux is KING when it comes to privacy and security. There is definitely a learning curve here. Pin the terminal, you're going to use it a LOT. Also be aware that on Linux you won't have every single app that you're used to. If you don't really want that hassle, just go with Mac.

Linux distros that I recommend(for beginners) are: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, and Elementary OS.

I use Ubuntu as it's the only one that I could get working on my computer.

Other Pieces of Advice

Use an Ad-blocker! Ads are terrible for privacy as companies can get their trackers in completely unrelated sites via their ads. I use and recommend uBlock Origin.

Don't use any personally identifying information online. Don't use your real name, a picture of you, your voice. The less you give to the internet, the more private you are.

Mix and Match! Explore what works for you. You might be okay with changing OSes but you might be a bit too reliant on GMail. That's fine! Just use what works.

Again, please go to privacyguides.org after this. This did not even scratch the surface but I hope this was useful to you in some way.

[frameacloud]

Some ways to avoid generative AI in web searches

Our web searches are being filled with more and more AI-generated slop. GenAI creates misinformation that can be difficult to tell apart from the correct answer to whatever question you're looking up. GenAI mixes things up that have similar names. In one example that is especially easy to recognize, genAI has thought that a baseball team and the bird that it was named after must both be the same creature, with a bizarre combination of their eating habits and behaviors. This mistake still happens with specialized topics that could be harder for you to recognize unless if you're already very familiar with the topic in question. GenAI also makes up fake sources and facts out of thin air, and you can't tell until you try to find them somewhere else. The tech is more like advanced predictive text than something capable of research or reasoning, even though it can look enough like it that it can fool you if you don't know how to spot its mistakes.

Not only are the results of genAI unreliable, the source texts and images that they’re based on were used without permission. Sometimes they aren't modified enough to avoid plagiarism, but it's worse than that. Source images have turned out to be private medical photos and intimate personal photos that hackers had stolen and leaked to harass the people in the photos. Another reason why this technology is unethical is that each genAI query has such a high energy cost that it's significantly harmful to the environment, contributing to the climate crisis.

Here are some things that you can do when you use Google, DuckDuckGo, or other conventional general web search engines:

To turn off Google's AI Overview, set "web" as default. Here's how to do that on your devices and web browsers.

Add this string to any web search to only show results from before the genAI fad. Before:2021

Install the web browser extension uBlacklist. You give it a list of web addresses to not show you in your web searches anymore. Other people maintain lists for it that you can subscribe to so that you won’t see certain types of results in your web searches. Follow the instructions in Laylavish’s Huge AI Blocklist to subscribe to that list which will rid your web search results of AI-generated pages or images.

Since genAI slop is getting to be such a big problem on them, use alternatives to conventional general web search engines some of the time:

Use a specialized search engine instead of a general one. For example, if you only wanted to find a particular science article, there are specialized search engines that only look for those. The blog post "Skip Google for Research" has a list of specialized search engines for academics.

GenAI is notoriously bad at math because that’s too far outside the scope it was designed for: advanced predictive text. In any case, genAI is overpowered for math that is easy for computers to do. If you want to use a very advanced calculator, or even ask a math question in natural language, use Wolfram Alpha.

For questions about how to do things, look them up in WikiHow, the Youtube channel Dad, How Do I? or The Ultimate Manuals Library.

You can search within Wikipedia, but unfortunately vandals have been putting machine-generated falsehoods into it, as well as genAI images. To avoid this, use the article history to view versions of the article from before 2022.

Ask yourself if there are some topics that you often do a web search for just because you keep forgetting an answer to something. Start saving those answers in a book or file that you can refer to offline. This is called a commonplace book. For an example of one, Beth and Angel made theirs into a zine, Stuff I Often Google.

How about a completely different sort of web search than present-day Google or DuckDuckGo? Marginalia Search only brings up results that are text-heavy and similar to the web of the 1990s and 2000s. Its software is independent and open-source.

Have you been using a web search engine to take you to the websites that you visit on a regular basis? Switch to saving them in your web browser's bookmarks folder. Your web browser, Firefox, can sync your bookmarks to your other devices. If you often need to refer to a large number of static web pages (ones that don't change what is on them every day), then you can save and organize them in your Zotero, a bibliography management program. You can sort them with folders and tags so you can find them again.

[twilysakura]

DON'T USE GOOGLE TO FACT CHECK THINGS!!!

GOOGLE CAN AND WILL CENSOR THINGS!

Instead, use browsers that aren't affected by copyright/censoring.

My personal favorite is Yandex (a russian browser that helped complete the Lost Minecraft Editions hunt) or DuckDuckGo (basically google but no tracking/more secure and way less censoring).

The only bad thing about Yandex is that it DOES track your location (from what I'm seen, it's just for the weather but even then, and the location seems to be wrong 70% of the time) and the text is really small, and you do have to go through another search engine to access it.

Yes, they all redirect to articles on google (or their google urls, at least), but it reveals the sites that may be hidden by google.

[revivify-inn]

I got my mom onto Duck Duck Go because holiday shopping with Google or Bing or anything has been a nightmare.

And everything has been great, except that she can never remember the name of it.

So I get to play "Is she talking about the browser?"

So far we have "The duck thing" which is the most common one. We also have:

"Duck duck goose"

"Ducky go"

"Goose browser"

"The Go."

"The THING. With the DUCK."

[cea-tide]

UBo filters I am using to remove the AI elements from DDG for who finds it useful too:

! block any network requests related to duck assist ||duckduckgo.com/dist/wpm.duckassist-ia* ! remove the ai chat button from the duckbar duckduckgo.com###react-duckbar li:has(a[href$="&ia=chat"]) ! remove the ai assist button from the duckbar duckduckgo.com###react-duckbar li:has(a[href$="&assist=false"], a[href$="&assist=true"])

[the-one-and-only-duckduckgo]

Just remembered I have to write things here.

What are your opinions on Perry the Platypus?

[stosb]

thanks to duckduckgo for putting up frosted glass to shield me from accidentally seeing lesbian flags when i search for "lesbian flag"

[netscapenavigator-official]

People always talk about Google's enshitification making other browsers look better, but nobody ever talks about how all that bloatware literally slows Google.com down. Google is a multi-billion dollar company, and their search engine loads results so much slower than DuckDuckGo, a company with less than 300 employees.

[misscammiedawn]

I noticed the Google thing right away and it pisses me off.

Every time I watch a new TV thing or movie I pull up the reddit discussion thread to see the chatter. A couple months ago it stopped working.

If I pull up Google results for House of Dragons finale I get this.

Seems normal. Posted a day ago. What about DuckDuckGo, my preferred search engine?

Okay, ignoring that little thumbnail crap there's a thread...

From 2 months ago.

Google have an exclusive contract for Reddit's data now and so DuckDuckGo is not up to date.

If I limit my results by the past week...

I get this crap.

And this is why Google deserve this anti-trust bullshit.

This is unfair and uncompetitive monopoly behavior and should be retaliated against with full force.