- What’s New in DuckDuckGo [duckduckgo.com]
Check out the latest improvements to our browser, private search engine, Privacy Pro subscription service, and more — all built to help protect you online.
- Upgrades to our optional AI features. When an AI-assisted answer appears in your search results, you can now ask follow-up questions to seamlessly move into a conversation with a Duck.ai chatbot. (As a reminder, you can decide how often you want to see AI-assisted answers: choose between "often," the default "sometimes," "on-demand," or "never" in your search settings.)
- "Rich Snippets" in our search results. On any search results page, you'll notice more information the beyond standard blue links and site descriptions. Rich Snippets provide useful context and details. like film and hotel reviews, company addresses, phone numbers, and more.
- "Fire Windows" for our Windows browser. Browsing on DuckDuckGo always helps protect your privacy, but these windows make it possible to browse without saving local history at all. (Helpful if you need to sign in to a website with multiple accounts at once!) Look for the "New Fire Window" option to open one.
And this only scratches the surface — see more here.
In the news...
- Amazon Is Removing a Key Alexa Privacy Setting: Should You Worry? [cnet.com]
Do you use Alexa? If so, be aware: "Ahead of the Alexa Plus launch, Amazon is requiring owners to send it all of their voice data" — even if you don't plan to use Alexa Plus. "Starting March 28, Amazon will be removing the 'Do not send voice recordings' option, which means all recorded voice commands will be automatically sent to Amazon for processing and analysis. The company is also changing how the 'Do not save voice recordings' option works, limiting Alexa features if you don't want to save recordings locally."
- Meta Sued by Pension Funds Over EU's $1.3 Billion Privacy Fine [news.bloomberglaw.com]
"Meta Platforms Inc.'s leaders appear to have steered it into a record $1.3 billion EU fine by failing to clean up the data practices behind years worth of privacy scandals, two pension funds said in court papers Monday." The pension funds "sued the tech giant for internal company documents, claiming they have credible suspicions that Meta’s senior leaders are to blame for the 'historic' penalty," which impacted their investments. "The fine in May 2023 stemmed from a broader crackdown on the company for transferring the data of European users to US-based servers that provide backdoor access to American intelligence agencies."
- Bluesky Proposes New Privacy Settings for Its Users [mashable.com]
"Bluesky is working on giving users a little more control over their privacy" with a new robots.txt opt-out. "Robots.txt is a file most websites have...that tells bots that scrape the Internet, and what they can and cannot do with the data they find along the way. Bluesky would implement settings that would allow users to tell those same bots what they can and cannot do with their Bluesky data."
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