DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials Safari Extension

If you wish to increase your level of browser privacy you may want to consider the DuckDuckGo extension for Safari. This will give each website you visit a privacy grade and also block tracking on websites.

Comments: 16 Responses to “DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials Safari Extension”

    Ravi
    6 years ago

    Hello Gary, regarding this extension, I have always used DDG as my default search in Safari and FF. After your video I installed this extension as well. Just one point to note: if you so to Safari Preferences>Extensions>DDG extension, there is an option there to check/uncheck "make DDG your default search engine". This should probably address your comments about it becoming default though you prefer Google :)

    Daniel, DuckDuckGo
    6 years ago

    Thanks much for the detailed walkthrough of our extension.

    To clarify about the privacy grade, the privacy practices part uses data from a non-profit called "Terms of Service; Didn't Read" ( https://tosdr.org/ ) which simplifies and grades website terms & privacy policies.

    This is a manual process requiring legal expertise so therefore very resource-intensive and time-consuming. We're trying to support them to improve website coverage.

    Patrick Mc Namee
    6 years ago

    Everyone should watch this video

    Alan
    6 years ago

    Good video. Gary, how do you think Safari rates versus Firefox in terms of privacy. I love Safari, but have been experimenting with FF. However, having all Apple products, I miss the integration of Safari. Love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

    6 years ago

    Alan: I don't use Firefox very much, so it is hard for me to keep up with their changes. Safari is pretty good for privacy with the website tracking prevention and per-site settings.

    Bill W
    6 years ago

    Gary, have you ever used startpage.com to get Google results minus the tracking?

    6 years ago

    Bill: Interesting. I can't see the advantage to just using Google in a private browsing window, though. And I can't figure out how it is legal that this company can take Google results and use them like that.

    Bill W
    6 years ago

    I have Startpage as an extension in Safari and ticked as my default search engine.

    Peter W
    6 years ago

    After installing in Safari, I found and installed the DDG Privacy Essentials for Google Chrome. Seems to work the same way...

    MRR
    6 years ago

    Went to facebook.com and unsurprisingly DDG rated privacy as "BAD" with a red X.

    Karl
    6 years ago

    Gary, does this work with IPads and iPhones?

    6 years ago

    Karl: No, this is a Mac Safari extension. On iOS, they have an app that provides you with a separate browser you can use if you like.

    Jan Franklin
    6 years ago

    in Safari’s Preferences > Extensions, DDG’s privacy considerations include…can read sensitive info from web pages, including passwords, phone numbers, & credit cards on all webpages … should this give me pause?

    6 years ago

    Jan: I believe that they need this permission to be able to block those things. DuckDuckGo is pretty well-known. If they were violating people's privacy it would be a huge scandal that we'd all know about. Read up on them at their site and they have lots of details about themselves.

    jasper
    6 years ago

    Safari (no pop-ups allowed) +DDG is my default but I need to use Chrome (with pop-ups enabled...so bad for security as well as privacy!) for a cranky web-based system. I use this Terminal command:

    open -a 'Google Chrome' https://crankysystem.com

    For extra convenience, I have an Automator app in iCloud with this line in the 'Run Shell Script' Action. Reminders pops up each month and includes a local link to the app (file:///...). I tap the link and Chrome opens on the crankysystem page.

    6 years ago

    jasper: Why the elaborate method for launching Chrome like that? Why not just make that "Cranky System" page the home page in Chrome and launch Chrome normally? And why are pop-ups bad for security in this case? If you are only going to that one page with Chrome, what difference can that make -- assuming that the site isn't using pop-ups that risk your security? And if that site does uses pop-ups that are somehow risking your security (not sure how) then why go to it at all?

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