DuckDuckGo
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Is this the browser you've been waiting for?
Forget going “incognito” with other browsers that don’t actually deliver substantive web tracking protection; you deserve privacy all the time, with built-in protections that make the Internet less creepy and less cluttered. Equipped with new and improved features for everyday use, DuckDuckGo for Mac is here to clean up the web as you browse. (And yes, you can import all your passwords and bookmarks from other browsers and password managers – so switching is quick and easy!)
The privacy protections built into DuckDuckGo for Mac add up to a better user experience; by blocking trackers before they load, for example, DuckDuckGo for Mac uses about 60% less data than Chrome. The desktop app includes the built-in privacy protections you know and trust from our mobile apps – which now see over 50M downloads a year – including multiple layers of defense against third-party trackers, secure link upgrading with Smarter Encryption, and our Fire Button to instantly clear recent browsing data. An all-in-one app that aims to be the “easy button” for privacy, DuckDuckGo for Mac has no fiddly privacy settings to adjust – our foundational protections are on by default, so you can get back to browsing.
Google laughs at your attempt at privacy:
Google employees cracked jokes about the Chrome browser’s “Incognito mode” and criticized the company for not living up to its users’ expectations for privacy, according to a series of internal communications unearthed in court.
In one 2018 chat, a Google engineer proposed changing Incognito mode’s icon to “Guy Incognito,” a character from the Simpsons known for looking identical to protagonist Homer Simpson except for a mustache, according to court documents reported by Bloomberg.
The character’s lazy disguise “accurately conveys the level of privacy [Incognito mode] provides” in comparison to Chrome’s standard browsing mode, the employee said.
In another recently released email, Google marketing chief Lorraine Twohill proposed strengthening Incognito mode’s protections in order to gain user trust.
“Make Incognito Mode truly private,” Twohill wrote in a 2021 email. “We are limited in how strongly we can market Incognito because it’s not truly private, thus requiring really fuzzy, hedging language that is almost more damaging.”
Google Chrome users frequently turn to Incognito mode when searching for sensitive or smutty content — but critics and some of Google’s own employees say the company isn’t upfront about how much of users’ information is still exposed.
More than half of users falsely believe using Incognito mode prevents Google from seeing what they search online, according to a 2018 study from the University of Chicago and the Leibniz University of Hanover. In addition, more than 40% falsely think that Incognito prevents websites from estimating their location, according to the study.
“We need to stop calling it Incognito and stop using a Spy Guy icon,” one Google engineer wrote in 2018 with a link to the study about users overestimating Incognito’s protections.