Life comes at you fast. You make a commitment to a web browser which is open source and, you thought, committed to privacy and user rights. Next thing you know, the company behind that browser lays off a bunch of their employees and tosses their hat into the AI ring, essentially shutting down great products such as:
- Mozilla Monitor (data breach checker)
- Mozilla VPN
- Pocket (news reader app)
- Firefox Relay (privacy email accounts)
- Firefox Focus (privacy focused edition of Firefox)
Since Firefox is going down a road I am desperately trying to avoid, I’ve decided to drop it as my personal web browser of choice. There are only three other open source web browsers which are available on all of the devices I use: Firefox Focus, which, well, is going away; Brave, which I already covered in my previous web browser article, and DuckDuckGo’s browser. I’ve already made the switch, as I am writing this article in the browser on my MacBook Pro now.
I was already using DuckDuckGo for my search engine, replacing Google, both as part of my move away from Big Tech reliance as well as a desire to improve my privacy protection. Now, using the DDG browser, I am also able to block trackers on websites I visit and, using the mobile apps, in the apps I use on my phone and tablet. For example, I installed the browser app on my Onyx Boox Note Air 3C, which runs Android. The app creates a VPN connection locally on the tablet, which allows the app to block trackers used by the other apps on the tablet, without affecting my connection to the Internet.
DuckDuckGo is also transparent about how they make money. Like Google, DDG sells ads which come up in their search results. Unlike Google, these ads are private, with no connection to my search history, email history, web history, or any of my online information.
It’s early, but I’m liking my experience with the DuckDuckGo browser. I was able to import my bookmarks and connect the browser to my password manager, so I have all the functionality I might have missed from my switch from Firefox. I’m looking forward to finding all of the features which DuckDuckGo offers and, hopefully, making this my permanent web browser.
