Qwant vs DuckDuckGo : A Battle for privacy

With nearly 95% of global searches, Google crushes the competition. However, in recent years there has been a real awareness of users about their data and the confidentiality of these data. New actors like Qwant and DuckduckGo are riding the wave, promising search engines respectful of privacy. A competition between new players whose main advantage is to allow Internet users to have better control over their data.

The promises of both search engines are almost similar: to preserve the privacy of users by not storing any personal data about them. But technically they have different approaches.

Same objectives, different methods

Qwant in order to preserve the privacy of their users do not install third-party cookies. The only cookies present are those of the search engine and are automatically deleted after each session. As a result, the results as well as the appearance of the page are always neutral and do not constitute a reason for tracking users.

DuckDuckGo also does not record users' queries and blocks ad trackers. However, the latter makes it possible to save its configuration parameters in various ways. Initially using a cookie generated by the search engine and saved on the browser. The US search engine can also store cookies in the cloud by securing it with a password. In this case, only the password is kept by the browser. The third option for saving configuration settings is to include them directly in the URL.

This commitment to the protection of user data has allowed these new players to build a certain influence .

The positioning of Qwant and DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is now the default search engine for many browsers like GNU IceCat, Palemoon, Dillo, Midori, SRWare Iron, Rekonq and K-meleon. Well-known browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari offer it as an alternative search engine. Vivaldi now offers DuckDuckGo as the default search engine for its private browsing windows.

Qwant arrived in Firefox in mid-March. Offered as a default search engine alongside Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo, it is now the first European search engine integrated into a leading browser on the market. We regret, however, that this possibility is limited only to the French version of the browser.

 

DuckDuckGo, if it aims to offer optimal protection to users still imposes a little distrust. Being an American company this one is thus subjected to the American law. This law, less protective about individual liberties can impose on the search engine a data sharing as it could be demonstrated with the PRISM case. All the opposite of Qwant hosted in Europe and therefore subject to the GDPR.

The battle for privacy may continue for a long time, much to the delight of Internet users.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://blog.economie-numerique.net/2019/03/26/qwant-vs-duckduckgo-a-battle-for-privacy/

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