DuckDuckGo has finally released their privacy browser for beta testing on Mac. The formerly mobile-based privacy browser seems to be making a play for other platforms too, but for now, Mac is the guinea pig for the company’s desktop-based privacy browsing. Because it’s still in beta, though, you’ll need to join a waitlist for the chance to test it out for yourself.
DuckDuckGo for Mac uses the company’s titular DuckDuckGo search engine and, happily, incorporates its famous ‘Fire’ button capable of burning up all your tabs and entire browsing history with just one click. The browser also claims to be capable of automatically blocking web trackers and, now, cookie consent pop-ups. You’ll know, and likely hate, these pesky little notifications that basically ask you how much tracking you’d like to allow.
DuckDuckGo claims that they can clear cookies on 50 percent of the websites you visit while also being able to automatically select the option to block or minimize cookies wherever possible. In an interview with The Verge, Allison Goodman, Senior Communications Manager at DuckDuckGo, stated that the company has plans to significantly increase this coverage as the beta testing for Mac continues.
By signing up for the beta, and (hopefully) being able to put DuckDuckGo’s private browsing experience to the test, you’ll also be able to access the DuckDuckGo homepage privacy feed. This interface looks a lot like Safari’s Privacy Report feature, so it’ll be a familiar space. Here, you’ll get a breakdown of all the trackers that have been blocked while you were browsing. DuckDuckGo says its browser also blocks content that contains embedded trackers and instead brings up a notification to inform you of the trackers before asking whether you’d like to proceed.
A few other features that DuckDuckGo’s new privacy browser for Mac boasts are a built-in password manager, a Smart Encryption tool, making it easier to locate websites that use encrypted HTTPS connections, and the ability to import data from other browsers. This would be your history, bookmarks, and passwords. Interestingly, DuckDuckGo hasn’t simply forked an existing browser, such as Chrome. Instead, it’s built using the same rendering engine as Safari. It’s for this fact that DuckDuckGo claims their browser is faster than Chrome on ‘some graphics performance,’ having measured its speed with the MotionMark 1.2 benchmark.
We don’t know yet how DuckDuckGo’s privacy browser for Mac will compete against the likes of the Chromium-based Brave browser, which boasts similar anti-tracking measures, but it’s always good to have a choice where private browsers are concerned. As of yet, there are no plans to bring DuckDuckGo’s browser to Linux, but the company has taken steps towards an app for Windows, which will be ‘coming soon.’ Whatever you do, remember to stay safe online with any browser you use.
