Initially, what DuckDuckGo claims to do, sounds great. Ie. the search engine that does not track you.
To the best of my understanding, this is an american company though, and all american companies are subject to pressure from any 3-letter agency above them in rank, think the FBI, CIA, NSA etc...
It seems like that DuckDuckGo is completely unsafe. If they were serious about personal privacy, they wouldn't have based themselves in the US. If some govt. thugs come to their offices and basically say, install these black boxes in your server farms, or you'll be considered a threat to national security, do you really think they would not bend over backwards? Of course they would.
Perhaps this would be some food for thought?
http://www.alexanderhanff.com/duckduckgoneIs it even possible a search engine company can exist in the US without violating user privacy en masse? I don't think so. In fact, I would not at all be surprised if DuckDuckGo is a NSA funded company. And if they really really is serious about the privacy of the users, a big question mark is why at all they chose to incorporate in America.
Small companies might go under the radar, but once you become an interesting target, or big enough - which DuckDuckGo probably is at this point, there will be intereference, backroom deals and surveilance and breach of customers privacy. Regarding the link above, it seems like they already lied about their cookie policy, which is already a red sign.
From a deceptive intel agency, what would be better than launching a search engine that claims to respect your privacy, what a great idea to push to the masses, while actually being the completely opposite. While people become more sceptical of google, why not lure them into an alternative which they think is safe in regards to privacy, but really is not..
For anyone trying to launch anything at all that claims to protect customers privacy, they should not base themselves out of the US. Afaik, there's laws that basically could be used to hold you indefinitely, if you're considered a threat to national security, and I would think that the officials could dub you such a threat if you were uncoperative.
So for anyone being serious about personal privacy, do not incorporate in the US, or do not expect anyone to believe your claims when you're US based. The only way to actually uphold your promises about customer privacy if you're US based is if you're willing to spend the rest of your life locked down behind bars. This means giving up the great life you currently have. I don't think many people are willing to do this, then I think more CEO's just accepts the black boxes in their server rooms as a necessary evil.
Another option could of course be to just shut down the complete operations if you start being hassled. But if you do that, what was the point in starting the enterprise to begin with, and why not incorporate somewhere where such a scenario would be less likely?
Thoughts?
PS: While I do applaud the initiative of DuckDuckGo, you cannot believe in unicorns and think you'll never be targeted or harmed. If they're not compromzed yet and there's no intrusive surveilance going on, it's only a matter of time before it does happen.
