DuckDuckGo Launches Privacy Pro: A 3-in-1 Service That Includes a VPN (betanews.com) 34
DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused web search and browser company, announced on today the launch of its first subscription service, Privacy Pro. The service, priced at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, includes a browser-based tool that automatically scans data broker websites for users' personal information and requests its removal. The service also includes DuckDuckGo's first VPN and an identity-theft-restoration service. Available initially only in the U.S.
Can you rely on DDG though? (Score:5, Insightful)
DuckDuckGo is based in the United States, so even if they are being truthful about their servers being no-log (not seeing any independent audits like Mulvad gets) the legal situation there is not great. There was a case many years ago where a no-log company was ordered by a court to start logging, and there is of course the on-going hacking by the NSA etc.
Given that they only accept credit card payments, you are forced to give them your details. Their browser isn't fully open source, or at least I couldn't find the full source code. It also uses the OS for displaying web pages, so Microsoft's fork of Bing on Windows, Safari on iOS/Mac OS, and WebView on Android. In other words, even if the VPN works as claimed, those browser engines may not. Being closed source, you can't audit it, and unlike say WireGuard it's not proven technology and there is no way of knowing how long they take to respond to vulnerability reports.
I think you can do a lot better for the $10/month they are asking for this.
I'll say it again... (Score:3)
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Re: I'll say it again... (Score:2)
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Depends on what you are using the VPN for.
VPNs are very useful for troubleshooting geo-ip filter rules :)
Re: I'll say it again... (Score:2)
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Re: I'll say it again... (Score:2)
VPNs are needed for pr0n in some regressive states. This service will do well there.
the ultimate killer app (Score:3)
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Zero logs, nothing in RAM doesn't make the internet work differently. Traffic still goes from the VPN network edge to the destination just as it would through a direct co
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I feel that most of this misses the intention. It is easy to get caught up in the edge cases, in the you vs. a powerful State actor... This is not reality, the vast majority of first world users (the reality of what we are talking about here) are not trying to hide anything from the CIA or the State, they don't want Hilton to snoop their porn browsing on the hotel wifi, they want some additional privacy from simple snooping and tracking at Starbucks. A VPN combined with some simple anti-tracking measures ac
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Hilton already can't snoop your porn browsing on the hotel wifi, nor the folks at Starbucks. All the pr0n sites, including pornhub, enforce TLS and the end-to-end encryption means it cannot be snooped on by a wifi network. All they can possibly know is that there
Liove long enough to become the villain... (Score:3)
Using a US based VPN is an inherantly poor choice.
"identity-theft-restoration" sounds like a straight up scam because... it is.
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Using a US based VPN is an inherantly poor choice.
You say that like their is a government out their that isn't morally corrupt and could be bought for the right price.
I am sure that the politicians in your country are morally upright people.
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Many countries, Switzerland being an excellent example, understand it is extremely profitable to provide genuine security to anyone who can afford it. Morals have nothing to do with it.
Please tell me you aren't so naive you didn't understand this simple fact.
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No politician is worth trusting and neither is anyone who believes in their lies.
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I'm not so sure about the "many countries" statement. Unless "many" means 12 or so out of 195. That seems an odd definition of "many". But yes, there are a handful of places that are much more evolved than the USA as well as the rest of the world.
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Tell me you don't understand what 5-eyes/9-eyes/14-eyes is without telling me.
Three Letter Agencies (Score:2)
I've said it before and I'll say it again... it would be pretty much intelligence malpractice if the each of the various Three Letter Agencies did not secretly operate at least one of the popular VPN providers. They've taken over whole cell phone companies before, this would be even simpler. You would never know which one(s).
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FWIW
https://screenrant.com/express... [screenrant.com]
I dumped the duck (Score:3)
Too bad you can't trust them. (Score:2)
No thanks (Score:3)
>"The centerpiece of our product offering is now the DuckDuckGo browser"
Right. Another Chrom*. No thanks. Also no support for Linux, so double no thanks.
>"Please note: Setting up and managing Personal Information Removal requires a Mac or Windows computer."
Again, no Linux support. So no thanks.
>"To subscribe to Privacy Pro and use our VPN, first download the DuckDuckGo Browser on mobile or desktop and subscribe to Privacy Pro in the browserâ(TM)s settings."
It is chrom* and also no Linux. So yet again, no thanks.
That said, I still use duckduckgo as my primary web search engine, with startpage as secondary.