Do you think it really doesn’t train on your data?
I’ve been using it and it looks good so far, I just ask simple questions and never let the context get too big.
It’s good that it doesn’t require login, just open and ask something.
Duck.ai is a saas, I can never be 100% sure that information sent to it is private, the only way to use an LLM privately is to run it locally.
Do you think it really doesn’t train on your data?
That is very unlikely, duck.ai doesn’t brew it’s own in-house AI, they run models made by third parties like Mistral, Facebook and openAI.
As far as non-local LLM inferencing goes, I think duck. Ai offers the most privacy-friendly service.
While it’s impossible to warranty privacy, you can warranty anonymity, because duck.ai is accessible over tor.
They constantly measure DomRect using javascript, which is a unique hardware-based metric that can be used to track individual users.
Imagine the cost of running duck.ai. What exactly is the revenue that it brings in?
Of course, if it were some honeypot, using DomRects to track users (and DomRect is not protected by Tor Browser or Mullvad Browser etc), well then it doesn’t really matter if it’s not bringing in much revenue since it’s value is in being a honeypot.
Yes, DomRect can be used legitimately in coding without tracking users… but why does ddg need to use this when they know that it CAN be used to track users and users have no way to audit the servers?
It’s really interesting they measure DomRect and not Canvas when privacy-aware users often block canvas fingerprinting but don’t block DomRect.
It’s sus
I don’t want AI anywhere near my daily drivers. If I want to use AI it needs to be siloed and unable to access any of my data unless I explicitly feed something into it.
Hijacking your comment to remind others of https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ The more that is used, the faster DDG may remove AI from the main page. (Hopes and dreams…)
Neat, in IronFox, that is already one of the search providers to choose from to set as the default. I had to manually add it to KISS, bit it is working great

KISS settings > Search settings > Add web search provider
https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=%25sGreat idea! Thanks for showing how to do it!
I switched entirely after they renamed their app to AI. Hopefully that helps even more.
👏 Thanks.
I’m talking about the duck.ai not the integrated AI on search results, I don’t use that one, I let it disabled.
Good news: “AI” doesn’t actually exist.
True, but nowadays, and for foreseeable future, AI means what the tech bros mean by it.
I’m real sorry! Not to be a complete ass. But the sooner people stop using the “daily driver” phrase the better! Oceans of cringe. Please, please delete this from your vocab! Its like throwing up in the mouth every time I see this.
This is a ‘you’ problem
What would ypu suggest they use instead?
I hate AI being shoved into everything. I’ve been using https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ and am very happy with it.
Is that an official noAI version of DDG?
Yes it is. No AI results by default.
It needs to PISS OFF.
It should be off by default. As it’s set up right now, DDG settings don’t keep on privacy respecting browsers due to cookies being cleared regularly. Since their AI is on by default, that means it regularly gets shoved in your face.
For you and whomever else needs to hear it, you can solve the second part by going to https://duckduckgo.com/settings and saving the bookmark with all the options included. Then you can clear all the cookies you want and it’ll always load the same settings.
If you’re using cookies. In general https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ is the way to go otherwise
I’d prefer this route too, but my phone browser doesn’t allow users to add custom default search engines
Which phone browser? You could always set it as your homepage to it if that’s where you usually start out
Don’t want it, don’t need it.
Everything you type in the chat box is sent to the LLM provider but they get Duck Duck Go’s IP instead of yours.
So if you type personal things its mostly just like typing them directly to ChatGPT. However, with duck.ai your IP, Browser info, Location (if shared), etc is seen by Duck Duck Go instead of OpenAI.
I don’t think DuckDuckGo is lying when they say that they don’t use your chats to train models. However, that leaves plenty for OpenAI and Duck Duck Go to do with your chats, like building shadow profiles.
I suggest that if you want to be anonymous to Duck Duck Go, then use duck.ai via vpn or tor. Always assume the content of your chat session is being logged by the LLM provider.
What do you mean by “shadow profile”?
Like a dossier which identifies you only by some ID which is used to compile data about you but never includes your direct personal info (name, email, home address, mobile number) so they don’t have to tell you or ever delete it, even under laws like GDPR.
How can they tie it to me tho? Or use it against me? Especially if behind ddg “proxy”
They can tie it to you by cross-referencing all the signals they have about you with data collected from other data collectors and aggregators. With enough data they can connect things like browser fingerprints and so-called anonymous ad IDs with your real identity.
Keep in mind that there is a good number of technical people whose job it is everyday to continuously figure out new ways to track everything they can about every person they can. These data collector and brokers have demonstrated time and again that they don’t really care about following the rules either. Here’s a good resource for more info https://noyb.eu/en
In terms of how they use it against you, this is some good info and it applies even if you aren’t American https://epic.org/issues/consumer-privacy/data-brokers/
Oh well all of this explains why I sometimes get instagram ADS which are relevant to me on my work phone even if I looked for stuff on my PC browser or smartphone (all using adblocks, deegogled android, private DNS, tracker blockers, private browsers and other preventive measures).
I didn’t realize they could literally track you probabilistically or they could tie different devices to you…
So essentially if I use my amazon account on the same PC (or on a device tied to me) that I use for looking at “cat food” I am screwed and they will know I have a cat and amazon will start advertising cat stuff to me?
I did know they tracked you, but I thought it had to be a consistent set of datas: accounts, unprotected browsing, keeping cookies for a long time etc etc… I didn’t know they could probabilistically try to catch you nor that they could so reliably tie devices togheter… I would like to know more about what they can actually do and what are preventive measures that actually works…
For example: can they (and how) get over tracker blockers? VPNs? Proxies? Private DNS? Degoogled devices/Linux?
What I’ve got to do if I want to be on the internet preserving my privacy? Should I literally stop using the internet? Should I use devices on which I do not login on a normal account ever and just use my self hosted stuff or the federated web?
And what about all the data they already have on me, it will be their’s forever??
This is getting ridiculous, we need new solutions, the internet as we now know it is completely screwed.
From ArsTechnica:
According to DuckDuckGo, chats on the service are anonymized, with metadata and IP address removed to prevent tracing back to individuals. The company states that chats are not used for AI model training, citing its privacy policy and terms of use.
“We have agreements in place with all model providers to ensure that any saved chats are completely deleted by the providers within 30 days,” says DuckDuckGo, “and that none of the chats made on our platform can be used to train or improve the models.”
So there is some trust involved, but I’m inclined to believe DDG.
It’s a frontend. Of course they don’t, it’s not their AI.
The GPT OSS can be self hosted tho.
I guess if you can trust ddg using ms search w/o sending information back, you can do the same with ai?
I use it reluctantly and only to un-fuck the fucked up search. if there were a good search engine I wouldn’t use the thing.
I’ve been using Duck.AI because you don’t need to sign in or anything. Works well
GenAI is cancer.
It’s fairly bare bones in all honesty. It does sum up initial searches fairly well but beyond that you’re not going to get much, if anything, out of it. Asking it follow up questions regarding a search is more miss than hit.
It has provided me decent initial results when I’m searching for some random linux question/solution but clarifying or expanding on initial results is useless.
That has been my experience as well. I use it extensively for searches, not for chatting.
I don’t trust DDG, really. I run LLAMA locally. It serves my purpose.
How much params can you run on your hardware?
If you are talking about free ai, the cost is your data.
Just use 4get. It’s a privacy focused proxy search engine that supports multiple backends. No telemetry, no tracking, no bloat.
Repository: https://git.lolcat.ca/lolcat/4get










