Hey Google, If DuckDuckGo Can Protect My Privacy, Why Can’t You?
Privacy Simplified — DuckDuckGo
Hey, Google
If you are following me, I have written a few stories about how happy I am with my Google Nest Mini smart speakers, and I still am.
It helps me while I am writing, from playing my music, keeping me inspired, keeping notes, and when I am looking for words, quotes, and references, all I need to say is, Hey, Google.
Everything is all good, and then one day, Ethan, yes I named my “Hey, Google” Ethan, asked me out of the blue, “although he did ask my permission first,”
“How Do You Like Your Pizza, Napster?”
I was busy listening to some music and writing. At first, I thought it was sweet. Yes, I treat Ethan as very special. And then it dawned on me that it is a little creepy. Why would Google Assistant, which is what Hey, Google is or Ethan is, ask me about pizza?
Google is collecting data?
Data Privacy
Google started as a company bent on changing the world, and yet the world changed Google, or money did.
While Facebook is the worse offender, Google also tracks everything. Google knows you and me from the back of its hand, and from what I experienced, the AI behind Google voice assistant wants to know you better, not to serve you better but to serve you ads that build the Google gold chest.
Say Hello to DuckDuckGo
If you haven't, check it out.
Privacy simplified, Privacy is possible.
We are set in our ways, and most of the time, convenience outweighs the bad, and we surrender our rights because it is easy, and it is free.
What is DuckDuckGo?
It is a search engine like Google, but instead of giving you “everything it remembers about you,” based on past searches, it only gives you “contextual results,” when you search for a car, it doesn’t know anything else except you are searching for a car.
DuckDuckGo doesn’t track you, and it should be the way it is. However, it still sells you ads, and in fact, DuckDuckGo has the second-highest share of the US mobile search market, edging out Bing and Yahoo. (A distant second, that is: 2 percent to Google’s 94 percent.) DuckDuckGo says its annual revenue is over $100 million.
If Gabriel Weinberg’s plan for DuckDuckGo becomes a reality, it will be the “easy button for privacy.” Because people will choose privacy over convenience anytime, and it is across all demographics, but it is a matter of knowing that it is possible.
DuckDuckGo has a long way to go with brand awareness, but every time companies like Facebook and Google mess up, it is free publicity for DuckDuckGo, and it also has a strong ally in Apple.
I have written stories about Apple and how Facebook treats it as the enemy when Apple has the back of everyone regarding data privacy. While it is within Apple’s ecosystem, it has enough power to help “convince” people that it is possible, we have to assert our privacy rights, and with companies like Apple and DuckDuckGo, don't throw the towel yet, as we can reclaim our rights and still enjoy the convenience of technology.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently announced that it would incorporate DuckDuckGo’s dataset for its own HTTPS Everywhere extension. Similarly, Apple uses DuckDuckGo’s Tracker Radar dataset — a continuously updated, publicly available list of trackers assembled using open-source code — for Safari’s tracking prevention. — Excerpt, DuckDuckGo’s Quest to Prove Online Privacy Is Possible
DuckDuckGo has strong allies, and as it pours in more money in advertising, not the creepy kind, more people will know about it and how one doesn’t has to choose between privacy and convenience. So I leave one question to Google if DuckDuckGo can protect my privacy, why can't you?
