[kwlug-disc] DDG in the news again

[Ronald Barnes]

Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote on 2022-05-26 21:04:

> I use them because they seem to
> the least harmful, not because I enthusiastically support them.

Same here. DDG works well enough but I'm not especially loyal or anything.



> Data point: I search for KWLUG on DDG. The link to kwlug.org comes up
> as the first search result. Great! But the link I click is to
> "https://duckduckgo.com/l/?uddg=http%3A%2F%2Fkwlug.org%2F&rut=cabb8327a6e42ae258b2db8cddd62e769e7f11e8165b56a492ca6205af89b2bd",
> not"https://kwlug.org"  . 

I just searched it in a Firefox "incognito" window, and KWLUG.org is the 
first result.  The link is directly to http://kwlug.org/, no tracking.


> Somebody is tracking my click. Why is this
> okay in a search engine that pretends to care about my privacy?

Hypothetically, it would be okay because they merely track "which result 
does a user click for query term 'X'?", which can be used to improve 
results.

As long as it isn't tied to a user, I can see it being reasonable to 
gather such metrics.


Tested again, "KWLUG" in a non-incognito Firefox window, no tracking again.


I wonder if anyone else can test if they get URL tracking, it'd be 
interesting to test...



Looking at the storage in Firefox for DDG, no storage other than 
cryptically named cookies; 8 of them, all set to expire after session.

Not sure what to make of that, but doesn't raise any immediate concerns.


rb