Here, we are comparing DuckDuckGo with Qwant to discover which search engine is better at safeguarding its users' privacy beyond the marketing claims.
Data Collection
Any search engine company's efforts to collect data is a highly risky task. There is a very blurry line between the quantity of data that is required and the amount that is excessive. Once a search engine service crosses this blurry line, one can infer that the notion of privacy is simply abandoned.
IP address, device type, device platform, search history, and links clicked on results pages are some of the instances of data collected by major search engine companies.
However, they do not necessarily need to collect all that data, compromising users’ privacy. So, what kind of data do Qwant and DuckDuckGo collect on their users?
Data Collected by Qwant
The Qwant search engine service, according to Qwant, aims to gather as little information as possible. While this is partially accurate, it still gathers some information that could violate your privacy, such as your IP address, search phrases, preferred languages, and news trend data. The privacy of the user is heavily prioritized in the data processing methods used by Qwant. To be fair, they made a significant effort.
Qwant's weakness is that it largely depends on outside services, some of whose privacy policies may not always protect the privacy of users. Qwant, for instance, relies on Microsoft to conduct ad services for revenue purposes. For this, it needs to collect and share the IP addresses and search terms of its users with Microsoft. Some of us may be aware that Microsoft is not exactly a privacy pioneer.
However, Qwant asserts that it does not transmit search terms and IP addresses together. Instead, to make it difficult for the parties concerned to link search phrases to IP addresses, search terms, and IP addresses are transmitted differently utilizing several services.
In other words, they hinder the ability of outside services to create a profile of you. However, some contend that the sheer fact that Qwant gathers this data constitutes a potential privacy breach.
Data Collected in DuckDuckGo
In ideal terms, the right amount of data collected is ‘no personal data at all.’ Your IP address, cookies, search terms, or any other personally identifiable data are never collected by DuckDuckGo. Every time you use the DuckDuckGo search engine, you are in fact using it as an entirely new user. There is no way for DuckDuckGo to determine if you have been there previously.
Most of the data generated as a result of your interaction with the DuckDuckGo is destroyed once you exit the search engine. This is part of the reason why DuckDuckGo does not have a clear idea of just how many people use its search engine.
Clearly, in terms of data collection and sharing their user data with a third party, one can conclude that DuckDuckGo is the most privacy compliant in comparison with Qwant.
Search Leakage
Search leakage occurs when a search engine fails to properly delete or anonymize data that can be given to a third party when you click on a link on search result pages. Your search history, browser history, and in some situations, cookies are a few examples of data that might be compromised.
In order to prevent search leaks, both DuckDuckGo and Qwant have implemented a number of precautionary measures, including, but not limited to the encryption of your data.
However, a challenging privacy problem for both search engines is that they store your search terms in the URL of their result pages. While it does not appear to be a privacy issue, it is. Both DuckDuckGo and Qwant unintentionally reveal your search history to the browser of your choice by keeping your search keywords in their URL parameters.
This implies that despite your best efforts, everything you may have done to keep your search private could be undone if you use a browser that monitors your browsing activity, particularly how you use search engines.
In terms of search leakage, neither DuckDuckGo nor Qwant convincingly outperforms the other.
Which Search Engine is More Private?
If one needs a less invasive option than the likes of Google, Bing, and Yahoo, then either Quant or DuckDuckGo could be an alternative. Both search engines take great care to ensure that whatever you do on their site concerns only your business.
However, if you prefer the strictest privacy options available, then DuckDuckGo might be a better choice.
