[liberationtech] DuckDuckGo and PRISM

[Nick]

Quoth carlo von lynX: 
> At least DDG doesn't correlate search strings to Google identification cookies,
> so that is something better than nothing, but still.. 

I think that's actually a very significant usability improvement.  
Sure you can tell people "don't allow cookies for google, unless you 
use any of their services, in which case don't search when you're 
logged in, and flush all your cookies when you log out". But telling 
them "search with ddg.gg" is rather easier, and there's actually a 
chance they'll do it.

You're correct that large governmental agencies can still do 
correlation etc themselves. But I'd still prefer have as few people 
as possible doing that, rather than volunteer such information over 
to companies as well. And it turns a "give us your account 
information" legal query into a "let us wiretap everything through 
you / backdoor you" legal query. Both of which seem to be A-OK at 
the moment, but I can imagine the present regimes ruling the latter 
illegal sometime soon.

Ultimately, I agree with others, search is the sort of thing where a 
P2P, or open and distributed, system is sorely needed. Another 
reason is the control and understanding of the algorithms that tell 
you what's relevant to you, but that's another discussion.