"Or because their entire business differentiation from the beginning has been privacy."

The same is true of Hushmail. How did that work out?

I have no idea. I (as I said) was not trying to assert that DuckDuckGo is not compromised, I was asserting that the reason that people believe it to be secure is because they've differentiated on privacy since the beginning.

Mostly, I don't like seeing condescending, inaccurate statements.

Well, the Hushmail story is pretty famous:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/11/encrypted-e-mai/

There is nothing inaccurate about claiming that people believe that DDG is protecting their privacy because of how the website presents itself and the claims made by the company. That is exactly why people believed (and many continue to believe) that Hushmail is protecting their privacy. The way companies advertise themselves is not necessarily reflective of reality.

I can't take their privacy stuff quite seriously, considering they are partnered with Microsoft.

Just like Google and Microsoft "take your privacy very seriously"? Not based in the US has become an undeniable feature.