DuckDuckGo says it is working on including password management in its mobile apps, and will offer private synchronization of passwords and bookmarks across devices. Users can bring their bookmarks from other browsers, and likewise import passwords from Safari, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and services like 1Password and LastPass. Similarly, it offers Email protection, an email alias service that hides your real email address, and forwards mail to your regular inbox without trackers. The desktop program retains the Fire button from the mobile app, that deletes all your browsing data with a single-click. This mechanism currently works on approximately 50% of sites, and will be improved as the beta test progresses. Embedded content that is blocked on pages (like Facebook trackers) will display a banner to indicate that trackers were blocked, and users may optionally view them if required.ĭuckDuckGo for Mac also has an automatic cookie pop-up management system, that will minimize cookies to protect your privacy, and close the annoying pop-ups you come across on websites. The browser has a Privacy Feed that will list the websites which tried to track you (and were blocked). The app is touted as built for security and privacy that works by default, because aside from tab management and bookmark management, the browser has a built-in ad blocker, a tracker blocker to block scripts, HTTPS Upgrading forces sites to load their secure portal. Given what I see at this early state, I’m hopeful for the eventual full release.It comes to nobody's surprise that privacy takes center stage in DuckDuckGo for Mac, fueled by the company's private search engine. The lack of support for other sorts of plugins is less cumbersome–ad and script blockers are the most common, and DuckDuckGo’s integrated privacy protections take care of most of that on their own.Īs this is only version 0.30, we can expect DuckDuckGo to be in a beta state for perhaps another year or so. Until we get multi-device sync and a way to work with the most popular password managers, I can’t see myself doing more than dipping my toe in DuckDuckGo’s waters. And while you can import passwords from other browsers, that’s a one-way street.Įven bookmarks do not yet sync between devices. The universal autofill function of 1Password works, but that only fills in passwords, it doesn’t save or suggest new ones. It will soon have integrated compatibility with Bitwarden, but if you don’t use that password manager you’re out of luck. It has its own password manager, but that doesn’t sync between devices yet. More importantly, the browser simply doesn’t work with plugins at all yet. Since so many sites use cookies to save logins, you’ll be asked when you log in to sites if you want to “fireproof” the login–so the Fire Button removes everything but the cookie that keeps you logged in. Unlike the mobile versions, the Mac browser gives you the option of clearing only data from sites visited in the current tab or current window. This is a one-click button to nuke all your browsing history and data. The desktop browser carries the “Fire Button” over from the company’s mobile browsers. The private beta had empty placeholders where ads should be, but the open beta version now removes them to make pages look better. This means that while DuckDuckGo doesn’t specifically have an “ad blocker” built in per se, it ends up blocking most ads by default because most ads and ad networks are just loaded with trackers. That doesn’t mean everything is blocked–there are less-invasive trackers used for things like auditing web traffic, and non-tracking plugins that do things like load fonts are allowed through. It blocks what the company calls “invasive trackers” before they even load, which can save a lot of data transmission and make pages load faster and operate more smoothly. The main conceit of DuckDuckGo is that it helps prevent you from being tracked online. That works on web pages as expected, but middle-clicking bookmarks (from the menu or bar) does nothing. For example, I’m a heavy bookmarks bar user, and I middle-click to open links in a new tab quite often. Some of these things still need a bit of polish. Since DuckDuckGo never saves your browsing history online, they implemented a browser history that is just a list saved to your local machine. A number of features have been added since the invite-only beta began earlier this year, including pinned tabs and a bookmark bar.
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