DuckDuckGo browser for Windows available for everyone as public beta

DuckDuckGo has released its privacy-centric browser for Windows to the general public. It is a beta version available for download with no restrictions.

DuckDuckGo’s web browser promises to protect users from third-party tracking, targeted advertising, search query logging, and profiling. To achieve this, it comes with various data protection and security enhancements active by default.

“Starting today, our desktop browser for Windows is officially in public beta – no invite codes, no waiting list, just a fast, lightweight browser that makes the Internet less creepy and less cluttered,” reads the announcement.

In October 2022, DuckDuckGo desktop browser version 0.30 (beta) rolled out for the Mac platform, which served as a smaller testbed to iron out major issues before the Windows version entered its public beta phase.

The browser’s features highlighted in the announcement are:

• Tracker blocking – Blocks all third-party trackers in DuckDuckGo’s privacy-threatening trackers list and offers superior protection against first-party tracking took.
• Smart encryption – Automatic HTTPS upgrading for every site the user attempts to visit, using an open-source crawler.
• Cookie pop-up management – Hide cookie consent pop-ups designed to trick or even coerce users into accepting an option offering the least privacy, defaulting to dialog rejection and ensuring that the most privacy-respecting settings are used.
• “Fire” button – Erase all browsing history and saved session information with the clicking of a button.
• Email Protection – Built-in DuckDuckGo Email Protection, an email forwarding solution that strips emails from advertising and profiling trackers before the messages arrive on the user’s regular inbox.
• Duck player – Built-in YouTube player that allows users to watch ad-free videos on Google’s platform without being tracked.

DuckDuckGo claims that the above privacy protection mechanisms and multi-level tracker blockers help its browser consume roughly 60% less data than Chrome, potentially also making the web browsing experience faster.

The developer promises to add support for extensions to expand the functionality in future versions of the browser. At this stage, though, users can leverage a built-in password manager to manage secrets and auto-fill credentials on login pages.

It is important to note that this version of the DuckDuckGo browser for Windows is in beta (download here), so instability and performance issues are to be expected.