DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials (2024)

Simple and seamless privacy protection for your browser.

Protecting your privacy online is like protecting your home. Locking the front door won’t stop the most determined folks from getting inside, especially if you’ve left the back door and windows unlocked and an extra key under the doormat. That’s why we offer multiple types of privacy protection, all with the single purpose of better protecting your privacy in Chrome. With the press of a button, you get seamless protection from most 3rd-party trackers while you search and browse, access to tracking protections for emails you receive, and many more protections which aren't offered in most popular browsers by default. Together these privacy essentials make more privacy your default. FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS • Search with DuckDuckGo by Default — install, and we'll set your default search engine and homepage to DuckDuckGo Search so you can start your Internet searches without being tracked. • Escape Website Trackers Before They Load — automatically stop most hidden trackers (3rd-party scripts) from loading, which prevents companies from collecting and using (e.g. sale, ads, etc.) any data from these trackers. Our cutting-edge tracker blocking technology goes well above and beyond what you get in most popular browsers by default. • Automatically Enforce Encryption — force many sites you visit to automatically use an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, which helps shield your data from Wi-Fi snoopers and network onlookers like your Internet provider. Most popular browsers only direct users to encrypted versions of pages in specific circ*mstances, like when you navigate directly to a page in the address bar. We check our list of upgradable sites for all links you click. • Enable Built-in Email Protection — Over 85% of emails sent to Duck Addresses contained trackers that can detect when you’ve opened a message, where you were when you opened it, and what device you were using. Email Protection makes it easy to block most email trackers and hide your existing address when signing up for things online, all without switching email providers. • Escape Fingerprinting — helps stop companies from creating a unique identifier for you by blocking their attempts to combine specific information about your browser and device settings. • Block Tracking Cookies — prevents most 3rd-party cookies from tracking you as you browse from site to site. ADDITIONAL PROTECTIONS NOT AVAILABLE ON MOST BROWSERS • Link Tracking Protection — helps stop companies from gathering your browsing history and other information via personal identifiers embedded in the links you click on. • Chrome’s New Tracking Tech Protection — stops Google from using your browser to collect and auction off your personal data with their latest advertising trackers and targeting (FLEDGE and Topics). • Embedded Social Content Tracking Protection — blocks embedded Facebook content around the web so they can't track you through their videos, posts, and comments found on other sites. You can easily unblock to view them if desired. • Google AMP Protection — forces sites to load content directly from publishers instead of using Google-owned links, which are full of creepy trackers. • Signal Your Privacy Preference with Global Privacy Control (GPC) — built-into our app, GPC intends to help you express your opt-out rights automatically by telling websites not to sell or share your personal information. Whether it can be used to enforce your legal rights (for example, current or future CCPA, GDPR requirements) depends on the laws in your jurisdiction. Note about our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection following DuckDuckGo ad clicks: Our 3rd-Party Tracker Protection goes above and beyond what you get in most popular browsers by default, but we’re constantly working to make it more comprehensive. Currently, if an advertiser wants to detect conversions on their own website for our private DuckDuckGo search ads, our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection will not stop bat.bing.com requests from loading on the advertiser’s website following DuckDuckGo ad clicks, but those requests are stopped in all other contexts. This is because DuckDuckGo private search advertising is in partnership with Microsoft. As part of that partnership, viewing ads on DuckDuckGo is anonymous and Microsoft has committed to not profile our users’ ad clicks. Read more about this and our Tracking Protections at https://help.duckduckgo.com/privacy/web-tracking-protections/ That's how DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials delivers on our single-purpose promise to provide seamless privacy protection in Chrome. It’s privacy, simplified. ---------------------------------------------------------------- To be the most privacy-protected you can be in Chrome, we also suggest tweaking your Chrome settings that are not controllable by extensions, In Chrome Privacy Sandbox settings, disable Privacy Sandbox trial https://lifehacker.com/how-to-disable-google-chromes-new-privacy-sandbox-track-1847276073 ; Sign out of Chrome https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9159867?hl=en&ref_topic=7439538; Turn off Chrome sign-in https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9159867?hl=en&ref_topic=7439538; Don't sync your history data with Chrome https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/185277; In Google Activity Controls, disable “Web & App Activity”https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/185277; In Google Ad Settings, disable “Ad Personalization” https://adssettings.google.com/ MORE ABOUT OUR TECHNOLOGY • Tracker Radar: https://spreadprivacy.com/duckduckgo-tracker-radar/ • Smarter Encryption: https://spreadprivacy.com/duckduckgo-smarter-encryption/ • GPC: https://spreadprivacy.com/announcing-global-privacy-control/ • FLEDGE/Topics Blocking: https://spreadprivacy.com/topics-and-fledge-blocked/ Please note that tracker blocking requires certain permissions, but these permissions work solely on your local device. We do not save or share your search or browsing information ourselves, as per our strict privacy policy: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy/ Looking for our Mac browsing app? You can sign up for the private waitlist in the settings of the Android or iOS apps. Learn More: https://spreadprivacy.com/introducing-duckduckgo-for-mac/ MORE ABOUT DUCKDUCKGO• About Us: https://duckduckgo.com/about/ • How It Works: https://duckduckgo.com/app • Privacy Newsletter: https://duckduckgo.com/newsletter • Privacy Policy: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy/ • Terms of Service: https://duckduckgo.com/terms/ • Open Source: https://github.com/duckduckgo/duckduckgo-privacy-extension