What you need to know
- The DuckDuckGo Windows browser is available now in beta form.
- It should offer more privacy options when browsing compared to competing browsers.
- The browser brings nearly all of the privacy protections and features offered on iOS, Mac and Android versions.
DuckDuckGo announced their privacy focused web browser today. It's already available for macOS, Android and iOS, and is now available for Windows in beta form.
Here are some of the features included according to DuckDuckGo:
- Duck Player, this is a YouTube player that allows you to watch videos without ads and also prevents the videos you watch from impacting your recommendations list.
- Tracker Blocking, blocks hidden trackers from the likes of Google and Facebook lurking on other websites before they can load.
- The Fire Button, which burns your recent browsing history in one click, with a "Fireproof" option for any sites you wish to stay logged into.
- Email protection, which can hide your email address with unique addresses when signing up for things online.
Here's a brief quote from the announcement:
Windows users, this one’s for you! Starting today, our desktop browser for Windows is officially in public beta – no invite codes, no waiting list, just a fast, lightweight browser that makes the Internet less creepy and less cluttered. DuckDuckGo for Windows is already equipped with nearly all the privacy protections and everyday features that users know and trust from our iOS, Mac, and Android browsers – and it’s getting closer to parity with those browsers every day.
DuckDuckGo
Note there that it says "nearly all the privacy protections and everyday features...". There are a number of things missing from the initial release of the browser, such as:
- Link Tracking
- Referrer Tracking Protection
- Embedded Social Content Tracking Protection
- Google-Specific Web Tracking Protections
DuckDuckGo does say these are on its product roadmap so we'll have to see when these features arrive, but be aware that you'll be missing these protections that you may be using in other versions.
These features should be added in the weeks and months ahead until it hopefully reaches parity with the Mac version, but until then it's still bringing something new to the table compared to other desktop browsers and it will be worth taking a look at.
