DuckDuckGo’s New Paid Subscription Plan Actually Seems Like a Good Deal

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On Thursday, DuckDuckGo announced a new three-in-one subscription service, Privacy Pro , which it hopes will help customers further protect their online privacy. The package includes a dedicated VPN, identity removal service, and identity theft recovery. But is it worth adding another $10 subscription to your monthly bill? Honestly, it’s possible.

DuckDuckGo VPN

Since DuckDuckGo just announced this package, I haven’t had a chance to test this new VPN. But based on DuckDuckGo’s description, it sounds pretty standard. Of course, the VPN will encrypt your internet traffic, so neither your ISP nor DuckDuckGo can see what you’re doing. The company developed and runs this VPN, although it uses the open-source WireGuard protocol to encrypt your traffic. It also claims that it doesn’t record any data that could link you to what you do online, including any DuckDuckGo services. You can run a VPN on up to five devices simultaneously using the DuckDuckGo browser.

DuckDuckGo says it operates VPN servers in the US, Europe and Canada, and that the number of servers will increase in the future. Note that by default you connect to the server closest to your current location (DuckDuckGo claims to do this for internet speed), but you can manually configure your server yourself. If you want to watch Netflix from a server located in Europe, or simply want your server to be as far away from your actual location as possible, be sure to change it.

Personal data removal service

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By subscribing, you also receive DuckDuckGo’s personal data removal service. This feature searches common data brokers for your information and, if found, asks site owners to remove it on your behalf. It then continues to scan the Internet for more data. You can check the data that DuckDuckGo has deleted in your browser’s control panel. This service must first be set up on your Mac or PC.

The company did not come up with this service out of nowhere: it acquired the personal information deletion service Removaly in 2022. This is one way to move forward.

Identity Theft Recovery

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Finally, if you pay for the privilege, DuckDuckGo will try to help you get your identity back if it gets stolen. This service is provided by Iris Powered by Generali, which will help you create a case if your identity is stolen. In fact, it can do a lot: Iris will freeze your credit, help you replace important documents such as a driver’s license and passport, provide a $500 advance if you are more than 100 miles from home, contact medical companies at for any reason. fraudulent claims in your name and refund some purchases you make in an attempt to restore your identity.

Is this a good deal?

DuckDuckGo claims that finding other companies to sign up for these services separately can cost up to $30 per month, while The Duck charges $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year (about $8.33 per month, if you break it down this way).

While adding another $10 monthly fee to your supposedly long list of subscriptions may seem like a daunting task, the price of this plan seems fair. If you care deeply about your privacy when using the Internet and would sign up for these three services separately, you’d probably have a hard time putting together a similar situation for $10. The VPN alone will cost you between $5 and $14 per month ; a service to delete personal information can cost between $4 and $10.75 per month (that $10.75 per month is DeleteMe ); and identity theft recovery services range from $7.50 to $9.00 .

There aren’t many privacy packages like this, at least I haven’t seen them. Some, like NordVPN , offer darknet monitoring, but not to the level that DuckDuckGo advertises here.

However, if you don’t particularly care about deleting personal information or recovering identity theft and just want a reliable VPN, you have options, some of which are cheaper than DuckDuckGo. Of course, there are even free VPNs , but they are usually much less effective than paid options, either because they are much more limited or because they compromise your privacy in a way that paid options do not.

My advice? Give it a try if you’re interested, but stick to the monthly plan rather than the annual plan. It’s better to shop around for different VPN and privacy services until you find one you really like, rather than risk locking yourself in for a year to something you don’t like. If DuckDuckGo VPN ends up on par with other VPNs like ExpressVPN or CyberGhost , the extra security features will be a welcome bonus.

You can sign up for DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro here .

Check out our favorite paid VPNs here :

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