At DuckDuckGo, we don’t track you, ever. That’s our privacy policy in a nutshell. For example, we do not create unique cookies when using DuckDuckGo search and, more generally, architect our product so that we do not even have the ability to create a search or browsing history for any individual — it’s privacy by design.

As our app is often used for everyday searching and browsing, there may be websites with which you’d like to share your current location —for example, in order to see a list of store locations near you. If you see the following permission prompt on a website and click “allow” in a DuckDuckGo app, this allows the website to access your location via the location services provided by your device.


Similar to our use of location services for search results, this process never sends your location to DuckDuckGo servers. However, anytime you allow your device’s location service to send your location to a website, it also allows the platform provider (Apple, Microsoft, or Google, depending on your device’s operating system) to access the information used to determine your location. This often includes your IP address, wireless access point names (SSIDs), and GPS coordinates, though this varies depending on the platform provider and their own privacy policies.

Our apps rely on the following location services for each platform:

• iOS and macOS: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/location-services/
• Android: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US
• Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-location-service-and-privacy-3a8eee0a-5b0b-dc07-eede-2a5ca1c49088