DuckDuckGo Is Fighting the Data Brokers–Here’s How

DuckDuckGo has always emphasized the importance of your online privacy. In fact, here’s how the search engine describes itself:

“DuckDuckGo is an independent Google alternative that also lets you search and browse the web, but we don’t track your searches or browsing history, and our browsers and extensions help you block other companies from trying to track you. We believe the best way to protect your personal information from hackers, scammers, and privacy-invasive companies is to stop it from being collected at all.”

As a company, DuckDuckGo has built a reputation as being a great tool in your data privacy toolbox. Their battle against data brokers is making them even more popular with people who care about protecting their identity and activities online. 

What is a data broker? 

Before we talk about how DuckDuckGo is challenging data brokers, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what a data broker is. 

The simplest explanation is that a data broker is any company that collects users’ personal data on the internet—and then sells it to other companies. There is very little transparency in the world of data brokerage, and individual internet users rarely understand the huge scope of where their data can end up. 

Data brokers collect your data from many different sources, including:

• Official public records, including census data, voter rolls, and court documents 
• What you post on social networking sites 
• Your online purchase history
• The apps you download and the information they collect
• Your location data 

Just as they collect the data through many different means, they sell it to companies with wildly different intentions for your data. This may include:

• Running background checks
• Determining your eligibility for a line of credit
• Marketing products and services to specific individuals, based on their online data or behaviors
• Investigation into your personal history 
• Law enforcement investigations 
• Creating targeted political ads 

Important information about data brokers

• The global data broker market is valued at over $200 billion and is projected to see continued growth
• On average, data brokers may have up to 1,500 pieces of information on individual users 
• The largest data brokers maintain profiles on virtually every American consumer
• Data brokers typically categorize consumers into hundreds of different segments based on factors like income, shopping habits, and health concerns
• Many data brokers collect and sell sensitive information including health conditions, financial vulnerabilities, and political affiliations
• The typical consumer has no direct relationship with the data brokers collecting their information, making it difficult to know which companies have their data
• Only a handful of U.S. states have comprehensive laws regulating data brokers, with California, Vermont, and Colorado leading the way
• It can take dozens of hours for an individual to manually request removal from major data broker sites

Why doesn’t DuckDuckGo like data brokers? 

DuckDuckGo’s opposition to data brokers is based on its opposition to the collecting and sharing of personal user data. This is a core part of the company’s value. It exists to give users the option to browse the internet without having their data collected. 

This means that when you use DuckDuckGo’s search tools, it never records or stores your search history or anything about your visit to their site. You can visit their search engine or use your browser for some of the most secure search options on the internet. 

How DuckDuckGo is going head-to-head with data brokers 

With the 2024 launch of DuckDuckGo’s new Privacy Pro subscription package, the brand is taking data brokers head-on. Offered at $9.99/month or $99.99/year, Privacy Pro has three key features:

1. It removes your personal information from the internet
2. It provides a privacy-boosting VPN service
3. It offers identity theft restoration 

Personal Information Removal 

Privacy Pro automatically scans 53 data broker sites for your personal information and requests the removal of your data—all without sharing your details with DuckDuckGo. Your personal information is stored locally, in an encrypted database on your computer—not on DuckDuckGo’s servers. 

In between removal requests, it continuously monitors for re-appearance of your data on any of the broker sites. 

VPN

Privacy Pro offers its own VPN, rather than using another provider’s. It is built in-house and uses the WireGuard protocol. This means that there is no logging of websites visited, DNS requests, IP addresses, or the lengths of your sessions. 

You can use the DuckDuckGo VPN on up to 5 devices simultaneously. It has 13 location options for your VPN-guarded IP address.  

Identity Theft Restoration 

DuckDuckGo is partnering with Iris, an identity protection service that provides help whenever identity theft occurs. US-based subscribers to Privacy Pro get Iris’s help with reversing fraudulent transactions and reimbursing certain expenses, including some travel and document replacement costs. 

Privacy Pro by DuckDuckGo: How It Works 

DuckDuckGo’s privacy removal tool is particularly innovative because it doesn’t require you to submit your personal details to DuckDuckGo’s servers. Instead:

1. Your information (name, birth year, addresses) is stored locally and encrypted on your device
2. The tool creates specific search URLs to check data broker sites for your information
3. When your data is found, it automatically requests removal through each site’s opt-out process
4. A dashboard shows you what’s been removed and when new scans will occur

DuckDuckGo also designed the subscription service to maintain maximum privacy, using random IDs rather than accounts and handling payments through third parties like Apple’s App Store, Google Play, or Stripe.

This represents DuckDuckGo’s first paid product and an expansion beyond its core browser and search engine offerings, taking aim at the $200+ billion data broker industry.

You can read more about how Privacy Pro works in the article Wired ran when Privacy Pro was first launched. 

Why you need to protect yourself from data brokers

Privacy Pro is a great tool, but it’s not your only option for protecting yourself from data brokers. And you want to protect yourself, especially because unsecured data can be used against you by cybercriminals, people with negative intentions, and scammers. 

We recently wrote about some of the most high-profile data breaches that were connected to personal data brokers. These included the time in 2024 when a lone hacker exposed billions of records held by National Public Data, which impacted 300 million people! There was also the 2018 attack on Aadhar, the world’s largest ID database, which exposed more than 11 billion records, including fingerprint scans.

Even Equifax was the target of a data breach in 2017 that led to the exposure of 145 million people’s personal data, including their social security numbers. 

4 Ways to protect your data from brokers

Here are a few ways to protect your data from brokers:

1. As we’ve talked about, try out DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Pro subscription plan 
2. Use identity monitoring services like Lifelock and Aura
3. Use platforms that remove your information from databases, such as Incogni, DeleteMe, and DataSeal
4. Check out our WhatIsMyIPAddress.com Personal Data Scan to find out how much of your data is available on the internet 

Our Personal Data Scan is designed to be the first step in a journey toward data protection. Once you see just how much of your information is online, you can take steps to protect yourself from data brokers who want to take advantage of owning your data.