The world is decidedly less trusting of tech companies and their mysterious motives in recent years, and who could blame them? Between what feels like daily security breaches and nefarious data mining techniques, the average user is looking for a new way to interact online. With DuckDuckGo reaching this milestone, it’s safe to say that the digital landscape is getting a lot safer for everyday users. This milestone shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that is familiar with DuckDuckGo, which has seen steady growth in recent years given the increasingly problematic practices of the tech industry as a whole. The search engine boasted 2 billion monthly search inquiries in August 2020, and has clearly been improving ever since. Even given this milestone, DuckDuckGo obviously pales in comparison to its mammoth rival, Google, which consistently has nearly 5 billion search inquiries per day. Still, it’s certainly impressive that a privacy-focused competitor is making these kinds of waves, and could be a catalyst towards a more private internet in the future. That’s why privacy-centric messaging apps like Signal and Telegram have been having a field day in recent months. Telegram, for one, announced 500 million registered users on Monday, and Signal actually crashed last week because the app was being added by “millions and millions” of new users. The sudden shift towards privacy in the last week, particularly with these two apps, is likely fueled by a Facebook decision to require a new privacy policy update to WhatsApp. The update would allow WhatsApp data to be more available to Facebook, which obviously rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Granted, Facebook decided to delay the requirement, but as you can see from these privacy app numbers, the damage is decidedly done. A VPN is a must when protecting your privacy. These handy digital platforms allow you to hide your location information while using your device, effectively preventing nefarious actors from gaining access to some of your more valuable information. Plus, many of them come with fun perks that allow you to stream international content and even get better prices on travel expenditures. Check out our VPN guide for more information Additionally, a good password manager can seriously protect you online. Rather than trying to remember every single password — or heaven forbid, attaching a sticky note to your computer — password managers house all your password for all your platforms in a single, secure location online. This allows you to easily access your accounts with the click of a button. Plus, many offer browser extensions, so the process is even easier. Check out our password manager guide for more information
