DuckDuckGo Privacy Essential Makes a Comeback in the Form of Safari Extension

BY Mahit Huilgol

Published 7 Nov 2019

DuckDuckGo is a privacy focussed browser that aims at offering a secure browsing experience for its users. Earlier, they used to offer Safari Extension as part of its Privacy Essentials suite, however, it was removed due to changes in how Safari handled extensions.

Apparently the new API on the Safari 13 allows DuckDuckGo to bring back the extension. DuckDuckGo is a website tracking script blocker. In other words, it blocks third-party trackers while you are browsing the web. You can also choose to whitelist select sites by customizing the filters.

DuckDuckGo also offers a report menu that tells you how many scripts have been blocked and the name of the website from which the scripts originated. It also tells you whether the connection is encrypted or not. The only thing missing is the automatic encryption proxy feature. This is due to the fact that the new native Safari extension architecture doesn’t support the extension. Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo is in talks with Apple and will soon add an automatic encryption feature to the extension.

Apple and DuckDuckGo have collaborated on many projects in the past. Both the companies work to offer privacy features to the users. It is also worth noting that DuckDuckGo search engine is officially supported by Apple in the Safari. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo makes use of Apple Maps to fetch location-based results. You can download DuckDuckGo from the App Store.

Why DuckDuckGo?

Most of us might be wondering, why to use DuckDuckGo instead of Google. To begin with, DuckDuckGo ensures that your browsing history remains a secret and the data is not shared in any form with advertisers. On the contrary, Google is known for its massive ad networks and leverages the same by embedding across millions of sites and apps.