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My IT buddy told me to ditch Google for DuckDuckGo 2 years ago, I finally did last month and saw the difference immediately

Back in 2022 my friend Mark who works in IT kept telling me to switch from Google to DuckDuckGo for better privacy. I always brushed it off because Google search results were good enough for me. Last month I finally made the switch after seeing some targeted ads that were way too specific about a conversation I had on my phone. Within the first week I noticed way fewer creepy ads following me around the internet. Has anyone else made this switch and noticed a real drop in ad tracking?
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3 Comments
claire_grant34
Is it really that big of a deal though? I mean, ads are just ads, right?
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west.casey
You said "ads are just ads"... I used to think that way too until my buddy Mark got hit with one of those "we noticed you were looking at" ads after his mom passed. He'd been searching funeral homes and grief counseling for her, and then for weeks every site he went to had funeral flower deals and cemetery plots popping up. He said it felt like getting kicked when he was already down, that these companies were basically monetizing his worst moment. It really changed how I see targeted advertising now... it's not just a billboard on the highway, it's following you around and knowing way too much.
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nancyjones
That targeted ad thing is real scary when you think about how much data they're grabbing without you even knowing. Why does a company need to know what you whispered near your phone just to sell you stuff? Doesn't it creep you out that they can listen in like that when you least expect it?
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