DuckDuckGo search engine and Vivaldi browser are joining hands together to collaborate and enable a new feature that will protect users privacy like none other.
According to a press release, from March 22nd, 2018, Vivaldi browser will become the first browser in the world to enable DuckDuckGo as its default search engine in its Private Windows.
This means once Vivaldi users switch to Private Window mode (otherwise known as “InPrivate” mode in Microsoft Edge or “incognito mode” in Google Chrome browser) their default search engine will be DuckDuckGo and their searches will not be tracked.
Vivaldi browser was launched on April 12, 2016, in Norway. The brain behind its development was Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner who also happened to be the former CEO of popular Opera Software and a critic of Google for its tracking controversies.
As of January 2017, Vivaldi had over 1 million users worldwide. The browser is currently available for Windows, Mac, and Linux and it lets users customize the appearance of UI elements such as overall theme, background color, start pages, address bar, and tab positioning.
On the other hand, DuckDuckGo search engine has been developed to provide utmost online privacy to users. For instance, unlike Google, DuckDuckGo does not track its users or collect/share their data. It maintains the official slogan of “The search engine that doesn’t track you.”
DuckDuckGo users can search on the platform comfortable in the knowledge that the company is not tracking their usage, searches or monitoring and recording their activity. That could be why in January last year the search engine hit a milestone of 14 million searches a day.
Now that the Vivaldi and DuckDuckGo have joined forces, the winners of the collaboration are their users who will not be tracked while browsing on Private Window.
“The current climate demands a thriving internet – not an internet with increased surveillance and security breaches. There has been a widespread concern amongst users about their data being shared. More than ever, there is an immediate need to protect our privacy. We are proud to join hands with DuckDuckGo and provide solutions in Vivaldi that respect users’ privacy,” says Jon von Tetzchner.
Currently, in Europen Union, UK and Argentina the “Right to be forgotten” has been put into practice which empowers the user to request the removal of their personal data from the Internet including search results. However, in the rest of the world, websites and search engines still track users activities and either sell their data/private searches to advertisers or share with government and intelligence agencies.
“A lot of people think their searches aren’t tracked in private browsing modes. Unfortunately, that’s not true,” said Gabriel Weinberg, CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo. “This new integration with Vivaldi enables people to get the privacy they expect and deserve in that mode.”
