What do you need to know about Google?

Did you know that Google collects your information?

Okay, do not panic. Here’s what you need to know.

Google is a large company that has many apps and services that actually collects data from their users. It includes your name, address, email address, phone number, IP address, and even your password that is associated with your Google account.

Google also collects the videos you’ve watched, voice and audio information, people you shared content with, apps you used, and even your comments. Google keeps track of every task you perform on the Internet – not to mention the files that you create and receive.

Okay, so there’s a lot of data Google collects from you. But why do they collect data?

Google collects your data:

• To build better services
• To maintain & improve their services
• To develop new services
• To provide personalized services, including content and ads
• In order to return results or help you share content by suggesting recipients from your contacts

However, you have choices regarding the information they collect and how it’s used. You can limit the amount of data Google does collect from you.

Go here: https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization 

What do you need to know about DuckDuckGo?

The fact that Google collects lots of information, millions of people worried that their data can be sometimes abused and it brings discomfort to concerned users. So, some people look for alternative search engines for Google.

DuckDuckGo could be one of the biggest competitors of Google because it claims not to store its user’s personal information ever. When you use DuckDuckGo, you are searching as anonymous.

“Our privacy policy is simple: we don’t collect or share any of your personal information”

One cool feature of DuckDuckGo is that if you want to use DuckDuckGo for its privacy, but still want to search using Google, you can precede your search with: “g!“. It will return Google results even though you are using DuckDuckGo as your default engine. This also works for Bing (b!), Wikipedia (w!), and more.

DuckDuckGo protects your privacy, doesn’t track you with ads, and keeps your cookies safe.

They end with an assuring statement: 

“…we will comply with court ordered legal requests. However, in our case, we don’t expect any because there is nothing useful to give them since we don’t collect any personal information.”

(Also see: 4 Bad Practices That You Should be Asking Your Network Provider)

Google vs DuckDuckGo

Google collects lots of data, while DuckDuckGo pulls information from their users including phone numbers, addresses, business hours, and reviews. 

DuckDuckGo is not as good as Google when it comes to features and products.

Google uses and utilizes your personal information mostly for advertisement purposes.

DuckDuckGo also uses advertisement for their revenue, but their advertisement is shown based on the keywords you typed in, and not based on your personal information. 

Bottom line

If you are looking for the best search engine, it really depends on your preference.

If you are a person who doesn’t care too much if your personal information is being used by companies, then Google is your best search engine. Google brings a lot of convenience and information to people.

If you are a person who is passionate about privacy, DuckDuckGo is the best search engine for you for its strong privacy policies.

However, you shouldn’t assume that everything you do is private just because you are using DuckDuckGo as your search engine.

Sharing information might be helpful for some reason, but you must always protect your privacy because privacy is worth more than you think.