DuckDuckGo Private Browser

DuckDuckGo Private Browser is a web browser created by DuckDuckGo. It is a privacy-oriented browser available for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.

The core browser functionality is the WebView component provided by the operating system. This means the browser engine is Blink on Android and Windows, but WebKit on iOS and macOS.

Features

 * Automatically blocks web trackers, and upgrades insecure HTTP connections to HTTPS when possible.


 * Has a special "Duck Player" that allows users to watch YouTube videos without being target of advertisements and tracking cookies.


 * Has an automatic cookie consent tool and supports the Global Privacy Control option.


 * The Android version has a feature called App Tracking Protection, which when enabled blocks trackers in other Android applications.

History
DuckDuckGo Private Browser was first released for Android and iOS in 2018. Desktop support began in 2022, with the beta version for macOS. The beta version for Windows was released in 2023.

Controversies
In May 2022, it was discovered that tracking scripts by Microsoft products like Bing and LinkedIn are not blocked by the browser. DuckDuckGo's founder and CEO explained it by noting that the company was "currently contractually restricted by Microsoft" due to their use of Bing as a provider of results in DuckDuckGo search. This meant the browser could not block Microsoft scripts. In August 2022, however, the company announced that they would block Microsoft trackers in its browsers.