The Best Privacy Features in the New DuckDuckGo Web Browser
It’s hard to convince people to change at all, but it’s especially hard to switch to a different web browser. Whether you’re a team of Chrome, Edge, Safari, or one of dozens of other options, you love what you love. DuckDuckGo has a lot of work to do if they want users to switch to the new macOS browser, but they have some smart privacy arguments that could finally get you to ditch Chrome.
The company’s Mac browser has been in closed beta for a while, but as of today, the beta is open. Anyone using macOS can download the app from the official DuckDuckGo website and try out the company’s new privacy features.
What DuckDuckGo Browser Has to Offer Mac Users
The whole point of DuckDuckGo is related to user privacy, so this is where the key features of its browser lie. One of the highlights is Email Security , which gives you an @duck.com email address that you can use when you don’t want to give out your primary address. This @duck.com account then forwards all messages to your primary email address, giving you the best of both worlds. This feature has been available since August, but is built into the macOS browser.
Without a doubt, one feature that will be attractive is the Duck Player. This is a YouTube player created by DuckDuckGo that blocks cookies and targeted ads by automatically using most of the privacy settings YouTube has to offer. While DuckDuckGo can only promise that targeted ads will be blocked, they also claim that Duck Player should dodge most ads in general. I can say that this has been my experience so far.
You can use Duck Player for every video, or use it as the default every time you click on a YouTube link. It supports features like subtitles and 4K video, but you have to exit the player to see YouTube-specific elements like comments.
Another promising feature is the automatic handling of cookie pop-ups. Whenever a warning appears on a website asking you to select your cookie settings, the DuckDuckGo browser will automatically select the strictest privacy settings for you. Constantly choosing cookie settings on new websites can be annoying, which is why I support this measure 100%.
There is currently limited integration with the password manager, but this is DuckDuckGo’s goal for future browsers. For now, it’s just DuckDuckGo’s own password manager (which includes autofill and billing info), full Bitwarden support, and 1Password universal autofill integration.
While all browsers have options to clear history and data, the DuckDuckGo option is built into the browser window button called the Fire Button. From here, you can choose to clear the data associated with the current tab or all tabs in the current window. However, since cookies are necessary for you to stay on websites, you can designate certain sites as “Fire Safe” – DuckDuckGo saves their cookies so you don’t have to enter your username and password every time you start a new one. session.
DuckDuckGo doesn’t have a perfect story when it comes to privacy . Earlier this year, we learned that the company allowed Microsoft trackers to track you on its iOS and Android browsers due to a syndication agreement between the companies. Thankfully, this is no longer the case , so you shouldn’t run into these issues with the DuckDuckGo Browser for macOS. Controversy aside, it’s always nice when a tech company puts in the effort to protect your data and not make a profit, so I’m interested to see where the DuckDuckGo browser goes. The app is still in beta and the Windows version is locked for closed testing, so there’s still a lot of work to be done.