DuckDuckGo working on desktop version of Privacy Browser app

DuckDuckGo plans to release a desktop version of its Privacy Browser app. The desktop app should be available on various operating systems and will use the operating system’s rendering engine, but with built-in privacy features.

The desktop version of the Privacy Browser is designed to protect users’ privacy in the same way that the iOS and Android apps do. DuckDuckGo writes, “So no complicated settings, no misleading warnings, no privacy protection levels, just robust privacy protections that work by default.”

The browser is not forked on Chromium, but the app is built around the rendering engine of the desktop operating system it runs on. That would mean that the app will work on macOS based on Safari and on Windows based on Edge. As a result, it can keep “unnecessary junk” out of commonly used browsers, DuckDuckGo writes. Edge is a browser based on Chromium, but instead of using a fork, which builds on an already existing browser, DuckDuckGo will have to build everything that is not in the rendering APIs itself, a spokesperson explained to The Verge. This includes, for example, navigation, bookmarks and passwords. According to The Verge, the macOS version of the app is currently in closed beta testing. For Windows, ‘the app is being worked on’.

The privacy features baked into the app should work during search, browsing and email, among other things, and are turned on by default. The desktop app also features the Fire Button, which is also included in the iOS and Android app, which removes all data with a single click and closes all browser tabs. It is not yet known when the app should be released.