Vivaldi browser taps privacy-first DuckDuckGo search
As your personal information leaks out through Facebook, one web browser offers a new option to keep a lid on it -- for private browsing tabs, at least.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Vivaldi browser logo
Vivaldi, a browser designed for power users on the web, has ratcheted privacy up a notch with a deal to use DuckDuckGo's search engine when people are using the browser's private tabs.
Browsers these days come with private tabs that don't leave traces of your website activity on your computer and sometimes, to a degree, with websites that might be trying to track your online behavior. DuckDuckGo doesn't keep any personal records of search activity, unlike bigger search rivals like Google.
"The current climate demands a thriving internet -- not an internet with increased surveillance and security breaches," said Jon von Tetzchner, Vivaldi's chief executive and a co-founder of the Opera browser in the 1990s. "More than ever, there is an immediate need to protect our privacy."
Indeed, our weak online privacy is in the spotlight with revelations of Cambridge Analytica's involvement in harvesting data from more than 50 million Facebook users. The consultancy worked for the Trump presidential campaign, and its chief executive, Alexander Nix, now is suspended.
Privacy is also becoming more of a priority for web browsers. Perhaps most notably, Brave Software's Brave blocks website software that tracks your online behavior, also suggests DuckDuckGo for private-tab searches, and is working on the addition of Tor technology to private tabs so websites can't tell who's visiting them.
Firefox's tracking protection also blocks trackers in private tabs and has an option to extend that to ordinary tabs, too. And Apple's Safari blocks some tracking technology in regular tabs, too, through use of artificial intelligence technology.
Search deals are lucrative for browsers. Search engines often share a portion of revenue with software that sends our search queries their way so they can show search ads. Vivaldi has a revenue-sharing agreement with DuckDuckGo, the company said.
Security: Stay up-to-date on the latest in breaches, hacks, fixes and all those cybersecurity issues that keep you up at night.
Blockchain Decoded: CNET looks at the tech powering bitcoin -- and soon, too, a myriad services that will change your life.