Google is the search engine giant. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that is much less well-known. But its claim to fame is protection of your privacy. “Our privacy policy is simple: we don’t collect or share any of your personal information,” the website’s homepage states.

Promising to not store your search history is huge in a time when most anything you do online might result in targeted advertisements coming your way later. Not tracking your IP address is important for your personal privacy.

Every lawyer should be aware of DuckDuckGo as an alternative to Google where more privacy and confidentiality of searching is desired. This is not to say Google will sell your search queries to opposing counsel. But suppose a client is involved with something you find bizarre that you need to research. You may not want bizarre-themed ads served up to you via social media for the next six months.

Maybe you are just tired of adding to Google’s knowledge about you every day so Google can sell that information to advertisers to target you. For detailed information about how DuckDuckGo works, see Search Engine Journal’s DuckDuckGo vs. Google: An In-Depth Search Engine Comparison.

You can utilize DuckDuckGo in three different ways. You can visit the site https://duckduckgo.com/ to use its search engine just like you would go to Google’s site. Firefox users can install DuckDuckGo’s Firefox Extension which bundles the search engine, tracker blocker and encryption enforcer into one. Mobile users (iOS & Android) can add the DuckDuckGo browser for mobile which comes equipped with search engine, tracker blocker, encryption enforcer and more.