DuckDuckGo’s browser and built-in privacy protections are now available to all Mac users. The company first showed off its desktop web browser in December of last year, before releasing it as a closed beta in April. The beta browser is now available to the public and can be downloaded from DuckDuckGo’s website (clicking this link will automatically load its DMG file). The company has also bundled new features into the browser, some of which were requested by testers who have been using it for a few months. The Duck Player, a YouTube player that prevents the website from serving the viewer targeted ads, is one new feature.
While YouTube will continue to track a user’s views, the videos they watch will not add any data to their advertising profile. According to the company, this prevented most ads from appearing in videos during testing, but any ad that does appear for viewers will not be personalized. Integration with Bitwarden, an open-source password manager, on top of DuckDuckGo’s own manager, and support for 1Password’s autofill feature are also new features.
When enabled, DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection can protect the user’s inbox by blocking email trackers. The company has also improved its Cookie Consent Pop-Up Manager so that it can now block cookies on more websites. Other features requested by testers include a bookmarks bar, pinned tabs, and the ability to view locally stored browsing history.
