{"id":37741,"date":"2015-03-05T09:29:32","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T17:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?p=37741"},"modified":"2025-03-19T23:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T06:49:11","slug":"intego-interviews-gabriel-weinberg-founder-ceo-duckduckgo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/intego-interviews-gabriel-weinberg-founder-ceo-duckduckgo\/","title":{"rendered":"Intego Interviews Gabriel Weinberg, Founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DuckDuckGo<\/a><\/p>\n

Every now and then someone\u00a0comes\u00a0along with a bold\u00a0idea, a way to make something good even better, a new take on an established idea. Intego was\u00a0lucky enough to sit down with Gabriel Weinberg recently, an innovative entrepreneur who has built DuckDuckGo<\/a><\/strong>, a search engine that rethinks the age-old adage that advances in technology must involve an \u201cinevitable\u201d tradeoff with privacy.<\/p>\n

When Apple first released iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, privacy enthusiasts were thrilled as it added the option to choose DuckDuckGo as Safari’s default search engine. Yet even with the amount of exposure that DuckDuckGo has already had, there are still a large number of Mac OS X, iPhone and iPad users who are unfamiliar with the search engine.<\/p>\n

Today we will share with you Gabriel’s inspiring vision.<\/p>\n

A New Take on Search Technology and\u00a0Privacy<\/h3>\n

Here at Intego we are passionate about helping parents protect their children online, which is\u00a0why we are raising awareness of\u00a0the advantages of choosing DuckDuckGo as a search engine for your family.\u00a0We want parents to know that DuckDuckGo is a search engine that may be safer for kids.<\/p>\n

Whereas Google and other search engines track searches and collect user information to build profiles and supply data to third parties, DuckDuckGo enables users to browse the web without this integrated data tracking\u2014a pillar of online privacy.<\/p>\n

\"DuckDuckGo<\/p>\n

We\u00a0sat down with Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, to learn more about the search engine and how it can help families maintain their privacy online.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuckDuckGo is a search engine like Google except that we don\u2019t track you. What that means is that when you search on DuckDuckGo you are completely anonymous,\u201d Gabriel told Intego. \u201cIn addition we focus on smarter answers, less ads and less clutter. The vision is simple: Superior search experience and great privacy at the same time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Online anonymity is important for children using the Internet, but traditional\u00a0search engines collect a lot of information\u2014physical location, the machine\u2019s unique Internet Protocol (IP) address, and what has been searched. Do you or your kids use Gmail and YouTube, too? Google slurps up personal information from all of its platforms to create a detailed, personal profile of its users. Over time, this adds up to vast amounts of data, mainly to the benefit of Internet advertisers and data brokers.<\/p>\n

DuckDuckGo is different. Gabriel believes he has created a way to present search results\u00a0in a better, more reliable way\u2014all without intruding on your privacy. We\u2019ve heard the saying: technology-driven conveniences can only happen if we\u00a0compromise privacy. Well, Gabriel clearly has other ideas.<\/p>\n

DuckDuckGo doesn\u2019t store search histories or record any data that could be used to identify your computers. It also features helpful tutorials about what happens when you run a search on traditional search engines and a bunch of kid-friendly goodies for finding information quickly. And it\u2019s not just for kids\u2014parents can use it too via the website (duckduckgo.com) or a browser extension.<\/p>\n

Intego’s\u00a0Interview with Gabriel Weinberg<\/h3>\n

We began by asking Gabriel what makes DuckDuckGo a kid-safe search engine.<\/p>\n

Intego: Let\u2019s start with something simple. What’s the difference between DuckDuckGo’s Safe Search and its regular search? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Safe search removes explicit content from results and is enabled by default.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Intego: Parents are very concerned these days about their children’s online privacy. Why should parents care about what search engine their kids are using? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Most search engines collect as much personal information as they can to build profiles of their users, which can then be used to better target advertising at them across the Internet. Have you noticed the ads that follow you and your kids around the Internet? That’s the direct result of this collection. If you want less information out there about your kids, use sites like DuckDuckGo that don’t track you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Intego: What other safety measures are you putting in place specifically around younger users? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We have safe search turned on by default and we do not collect or share personal information. These apply to all users of DuckDuckGo, including kids. Outside of safety, kids love our branding, especially Dax the duck!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Intego: In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, you\u2019re also the father of two kids. Tell us a little about what kid-friendly technology you use on a daily basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For context, my kids are currently aged three and five. I believe that different technology mediums (TV, iPad, etc.) each have something unique and useful to offer our kids and I actively seek that out. I think it has really made a big difference. For example, both of my kids were reading when they were two. I think that is in large part to playing phonics videos in the car and using good iPad reading apps. The videos we used are made by Pre School Prep and Rock n’ Learn.<\/p>\n

Now I try to focus on things they’re not going to be learning elsewhere, and use technology to help with that. Here are a few examples from the last few months. I set up a website for my oldest and have been showing him how to program it (just very basic HTML, but\u00a0he can get the\u00a0idea of how it works). We’ve also been doing simple math sequence problems and I’ve been showing him how to graph them on Excel. He’s also interested in making movies and there are a lot of great apps for that on the iPad that he’s been trying out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fascinating stuff, Gabriel!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

To wrap things up, we want\u00a0to\u00a0thank Gabriel for taking the time to answer our questions about DuckDuckGo. If he\u2019s piqued your interest in the search engine, you can head over to\u00a0DuckDuckGo.com<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and change your default search engine<\/a>\u00a0today!<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts…<\/h3>\n

Before you go on your merry way, we want our readers to be aware that\u2014in addition to search engines\u2014there are\u00a0many steps in the process of online\u00a0tracking. And there’s more you can do to boost\u00a0your Internet security and privacy.<\/p>\n

DuckDuckGo will not track you when using its search engine, and the search tool provides encryption to help with that, but there are still many locations\u00a0where everything you type\u00a0could be easily stored. Your data can be stored on your local computer, and when surfing the web you’re going through your Internet Service Provider (ISP)\u2014the company that provides access to the Internet. Then you have the search engine, and that’s what DuckDuckGo controls, and after that, the final website.<\/p>\n

As well as\u00a0switching search engines and perhaps using a different email provider, you can add more layers of security with EFF’s HTTPS Everywhere<\/a> plug-in for your browser, which encrypts website connections where possible,\u00a0and\u00a0add\u00a0EFF’s Privacy Badger<\/a> plug-in, which blocks third-party trackers. Finally, it is crucial to consider a multi-layered approach to Internet security with solutions like\u00a0Intego\u2019s award-winning\u00a0Mac Internet Security<\/a> software, which\u00a0can protect your data where a web browser and a search engine cannot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intego sat down with DuckDuckGo Founder & CEO Gabriel Weinberg to learn more about the search engine and how it can help families maintain their privacy online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":37942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[151,13],"tags":[1993,1996,1999,106,2005,357],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n