DuckDuckGo has now extended the fraud protection in its privacy-centric browser to shield users from even more scams — without subjecting your browsing to additional tracking. Yay!
In addition to blocking phishing sites, malware, and known online scams, the DuckDuck Go browser’s protection will now also work against fake online stores, fake crypto exchanges, and “scareware” sites that claim your PC is infected or blocked by the FBI, for example.
The tool works by simply alerting the user if they click on a web page that could be potentially harmful. The website address is checked against a localized list of known threats from Netcraft that is updated every 20 minutes.
Private people will appreciate how DDG handles the technical side of this. Unlike browsers that use Google Safe Browsing — such as Chrome, Safari, and Firefox — DuckDuckGo does all the checking without sharing data with a third party. The new feature is enabled by default without requiring an account.
Further reading: I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo’s private search: 5 big takeaways