DuckDuckGo activates anti-tracking technology in its mobile apps

DuckDuckGo will activate Global Privacy Control, or GPC, by default in its apps. This anti-tracking technique sends a signal to websites not to sell the visitor’s data to third parties.

In a blog, DuckDuckGo announces the update for its mobile apps and browser plugins. Users will then need to update to version 7.61.11 of DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser on iOS or version 5.73.0 on Android. When users install the new version, GPC is automatically activated.

GPC is also available for the DuckDuckGo Essentials browser plug-in from version 2021.1.8. The plugin is available for Chrome, Firefox, Brave and Edge. GPC is an initiative of a group of privacy organizations, including DuckDuckGo. With GPC, the initiators want a uniform signal to be sent to websites if a visitor does not want their data to be sold on. A number of major platforms have since joined GPC, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Automattic, the company behind WordPress.

The DuckDuckGo search engine is growing in popularity; the number of searches on the service increased by 68 percent in 2020. At the beginning of January this year, the daily searches via DuckDuckGo exceeded 100 million, according to its own statement.