Is DuckDuckGo private? What it collects and what it can't hide

DuckDuckGo's privacy policy opens with one line: "We don't track you." That is a claim about DuckDuckGo itself, and by its own published policy it holds up well. Whether you are private online when you use it is a different question, because DuckDuckGo is only one of several parties that see your traffic. Everything below comes from DuckDuckGo's own privacy policy and help pages, read on October 28, 2026.

Is DuckDuckGo private?

Yes, from DuckDuckGo itself. Its privacy policy says it does not save or share your search or browsing history, does not store your IP address alongside your searches, and does not build a profile to target ads. Search ads are based on the page you are viewing, not on you.

It does not hide you. Your internet provider and the networks in between still see your IP address. Every site you click through to sees your IP address and applies its own privacy policy. DuckDuckGo's policy says so plainly: "we can't completely protect you when you visit other websites and apps."

What DuckDuckGo says it collects

Your device sends some information to any website automatically. DuckDuckGo's privacy policy lists what it receives and what it does with it.

What reaches DuckDuckGo	What DuckDuckGo says it does with it
Your IP address, browser type and language	Used "temporarily to deliver content to you" and for security, to check you are not a malicious bot
Screen size, operating system and preferences, if requested	Same temporary use
Your search query	Saved only without any unique identifier such as an IP address, to analyze anonymous search trends
Your location, for local results	Replaced with "a random location nearish to you," which it says it never logs to disk
Settings such as dark mode or region	Stored in anonymous cookies or, if you prefer, in URL parameters

The policy adds that DuckDuckGo never logs IP addresses or other unique identifiers to disk in a way that could be tied back to you. Its example: it may know it got many searches for "cute cat pictures" today, but not who made them.

Two consequences follow from that. First, there is no search history to hand over. The policy says "it's not possible for us to provide search, chat, or browsing histories linked to you in response to legal requests because we don't have them." Second, there is nothing to sell. The policy states: "We have never sold any personal information."

Does DuckDuckGo share your searches with Microsoft?

Not by its account. DuckDuckGo says its traditional links and images are ones "which we largely source from Bing," alongside its own crawler and specialist sources such as Wikipedia. Its help page on result sources explains that requests to partners are proxied through DuckDuckGo's servers, so partners see the request as coming from DuckDuckGo and no IP address is passed along.

Ads are the one place where Microsoft gets more. DuckDuckGo's search ads come from Microsoft's ad network. Viewing them is covered by the same proxying. Clicking one is not. The joint DuckDuckGo and Microsoft ads page says that when you click a Microsoft-provided ad, "Microsoft Advertising will use your full IP address and user-agent string" to process the click and charge the advertiser. Microsoft commits there not to tie the click to a user profile and not to store or share it except for accounting.

If you would rather not rely on that commitment, the simple answer is not to click search ads, or to turn ads off. DuckDuckGo's tracking protections page says ads can be disabled in DuckDuckGo search settings.

What DuckDuckGo can't hide

This is the part most people mean when they ask whether DuckDuckGo is private.

Your IP address from your internet provider. The privacy policy is direct: "we cannot prevent your device's IP address from being seen by your internet service provider, our hosting provider, or other internet providers in between." Your provider cannot read the search itself, because the connection is encrypted. DuckDuckGo's help page for that question says your provider "cannot see the searches you make on DuckDuckGo." It can still see your IP address and that you connected. Our guide to what your internet provider can see covers what it sees of the sites you open next.

Your IP address from the sites you visit. Clicking a result takes you to another company's server, and that server receives your IP address with the request. The policy says that once you leave, "the privacy policies and practices of those other websites apply," and gives the example that if you browse Facebook, Facebook will know what you do on its site. The Web Tracking Protections page makes the same point about trackers: protections that act only after a tracker loads leave "your IP address and other identifiers sent with loading requests vulnerable to profiling."

Anything you hand over yourself. Signing in to an account, filling in a form or buying something identifies you to that site no matter which search engine got you there.

What is on your device. Unless you clear it, your browser keeps your history, cookies and open tabs locally.

Is the DuckDuckGo browser private?

The browser and extensions add protection beyond search, and DuckDuckGo documents each one on its Web Tracking Protections page:

Third-party tracker loading protection. Stops most third-party trackers on DuckDuckGo's list from loading at all, which keeps them from receiving your IP address in the first place. DuckDuckGo notes it may make a limited exception to keep sign-in or other essential site features working.
Fingerprinting protection. Blocks many fingerprinting scripts and makes browser features that reveal details like screen size return less useful information.
Referrer trimming. Cuts the referrer sent to third parties down to the bare hostname. The page lists platforms where this is unsupported, including the Chrome and Edge extensions and the Android app. It adds that your DuckDuckGo search terms are never included in the referrer either way.
Global Privacy Control. Sends a signal telling sites not to sell or share your personal information. Whether that signal is legally binding depends on where you live.
The Fire Button. Per the Fire Button help page, it deletes cookies, caches, open tabs, history and site permissions. Fire Windows on desktop and Fire Tabs on mobile keep a session separate and delete its data when you close it.

One documented exception applies after an ad click. To let advertisers measure whether an ad led to a purchase, DuckDuckGo's tracker blocking does not block Microsoft's bat.bing.com requests on the advertiser's site following a DuckDuckGo ad click, and it expires any cookies those requests set after 7 days. DuckDuckGo says these requests are blocked in every other context, and its other protections still apply. Separately, its Microsoft help page states that "Microsoft scripts are not and have never been embedded in our search engine or apps."

None of these tools changes your IP address. Sites you load still receive it.

How to search and browse more privately

Use the encrypted address. Check that the address bar shows https. That is what keeps your provider from reading your queries.
Turn off ads, or skip them. In DuckDuckGo search settings, ads can be disabled. That avoids the ad-click path to Microsoft Advertising.
Use the browser or extension, not just the search page. Search privacy ends where the result link begins. Tracker blocking, fingerprinting protection and the Fire Button only work inside DuckDuckGo's apps and extensions.
Use a Fire Window or Fire Tab for sensitive lookups. It is the closest equivalent to a private window, and it clears itself on close. Like incognito mode, it does not hide you from the network or the sites you visit.
Stay signed out of other services while you search. A search engine that keeps no history cannot help if the site you land on knows who you are.
Hide your IP address separately. No search engine or browser setting does this. A VPN replaces your IP address with the VPN server's for the sites you visit, and moves what your provider can see to the VPN. Our guide on what a VPN hides lays out who still sees what.

Covering the part DuckDuckGo can't

DuckDuckGo keeps your searches from becoming a history. The sites you open after the search still see your IP address. Secria VPN hides your IP from the sites you visit, uses post-quantum encryption on every connection, and runs on RAM-only servers. Together they cover both halves: what you search and where you go next.

Frequently asked questions

Does DuckDuckGo hide my IP address?

From DuckDuckGo's own partners, yes: it proxies requests so they never see your IP address. From your internet provider and the websites you visit, no. DuckDuckGo's privacy policy says it cannot prevent your IP address from being seen by your provider and the networks in between.

Can my internet provider see my DuckDuckGo searches?

No. The connection to DuckDuckGo is encrypted, so your provider cannot see what you searched for. It can still see your IP address and that you connected to DuckDuckGo.

Does DuckDuckGo store my search history?

DuckDuckGo says it does not save your search history. It keeps search queries only without unique identifiers like IP addresses, to study anonymous search trends, and says it has no way to build a history of what any one person searched.

Is DuckDuckGo safe to use?

By its published policy, DuckDuckGo collects far less than a search engine that keeps a history tied to an account. The risks that remain are the ones every search engine shares: the sites you click, the ads you click, and what your network can see.

Is DuckDuckGo private in incognito mode?

Incognito, Fire Windows and Fire Tabs all do the same job: they keep a session's data off your device. They do not change your IP address or what the sites you visit can see.

DuckDuckGo is a private search engine that tells you clearly where its protection ends. Use it for what you search, and hide your IP address with Secria VPN for where you go next.