DuckDuckGo Unveils Privacy Pro with VPN and Identity Protection

Published on: April 13, 2024

DuckDuckGo, a popular privacy-first search engine, has launched a new subscription service called Privacy Pro.

This service aims to enhance users’ online privacy and give them better control over their data by bundling 3 tools: a VPN, personal information removal, and identity theft restoration. DuckDuckGo now offers the Privacy Pro plan for $9.99 a month or $99 a year, exclusively to US residents.

This marks the company’s first attempt to integrate a subscription service into its browser as DuckDuckGo has, so far, solely relied on ad revenue.

DuckDuckGo’s VPN uses the open source WireGuard protocol to protect your online traffic — it’s a highly secure and lightweight protocol that lots of top VPNs on the market use. The company also routes all DNS queries through its own DNS resolvers to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from snooping on your browsing history. You can currently connect to servers in Europe, the US, and Canada.

DuckDuckGo’s personal information removal service scans numerous data broker sites for details such as your name and address. If it finds your information on any of these sites, it requests removal and manages email correspondence with them.

According to the company, this feature leverages technology from Removaly, a startup it acquired in 2022. At the time of acquisition, Removaly’s founder, Kyle Krzeski, hinted on X that a privacy company had bought the startup, without disclosing its name.

Finally, DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Pro plan’s identity theft restoration offers around-the-clock help from an advisor to recover any identity-related losses. This service covers financial losses, repairs to credit reports, including freezing the report until your identity is restored and replacing or canceling items such as driver’s licenses, bank cards, and passports. The company explains that the recovery agent would handle all formalities and follow up with various companies on your behalf.

DuckDuckGo says it ensures user privacy by maintaining no logs of users’ VPN activity, storing data from the personal information removal service locally on the device, and assigning a random ID to users when they sign up for the Privacy Pro service.

“At DuckDuckGo, we don’t track you; that’s our privacy policy in a nutshell, and this new subscription service is no exception,” said Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo.

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• Source: https://www.safetydetectives.com/news/duckduckgo-unveils-privacy-pro-with-vpn-and-identity-protection/