Any evidence to suggest that most people care? Most people just want the best search results, quickly.
Or is this a conscious decision to keep DDG serving a 'niche'.
> and so at DuckDuckGo you are not the product, search is.
Is DuckDuckGo a paid for product then? Users pay to search do they? If it's ad (Or VC) supported, then the user very much IS the product.
But is that information collected by you or anyone affiliated with you or given to anyone?
How about information that doesn't directly identify you, but could be used to identify you? (things like browser fingerprints, IPs, cookies, etc)
https://duckduckgo.com/privacy
We do not collect or share any information that can be used to personally identify you.
Do you have specific contracts that allows you to use their indexes anonymously or are you at their mercy?
So... who's paying?
Case A - if you type in "Car" we show an ad about cars. Advertisers are paying to appear at the top of that page. They do not know who you are or what you previously searched.
Case B - if you type in "Car" you are shown an ad about cars. Advertisers are paying to target based on your interest in cars, and possibly other websites you've visited, online actions you've taken, re-marketing pixels from third-party websites, or your affinity to other demographic groups.
In "Case A" the search page is the product.
In "Case B" you are the product.
But the most important feature is that DuckDuckGo is the search engine that doesn't track you. We don't store your personal information and we don't sell you out to advertisers.
Our goal is to raise the standard of trust online, and so at DuckDuckGo you are not the product, search is. We think that's an important difference.
Disclaimer: DDG staff.