I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of Attorney'
and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to
do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as
it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.
--
Jim the Geordie


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On 04/09/2025 12:46, Ed Cryer wrote:

Jim the Geordie wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the
understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of
Attorney' and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors
offering to do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google
as it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Are you sure it's DuckDuckGo that leaked your info?
Did you not go to one of the hits you got from it? That could be the
source of the spam.

Ed

I've no idea, but if it is that, it nullifies using DDG really.

--
Jim the Geordie

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On 04/09/2025 13:22, Jim the Geordie wrote:

On 04/09/2025 12:46, Ed Cryer wrote:

Jim the Geordie wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the
understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of
Attorney' and since then I have been receiving adverts from
solicitors offering to do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google
as it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Are you sure it's DuckDuckGo that leaked your info?
Did you not go to one of the hits you got from it? That could be the
source of the spam.

Ed

I've no idea, but if it is that, it nullifies using DDG really.

Not really. The vast majority of websites you visit as the result of a
search do not pass your email to spammers.
You could equally say that spammers nullify using the Internet.

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Reply-To: sb.nospam@belgacom.net

On Thu, 4 Sep 2025 11:25:32 +0100, Jim the Geordie wrote:

Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as
it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Just use Startpage.com. It's Google without Google collecting you
history.

--
s|b

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Jim,

Did you not go to one of the hits you got from it? That could be the
source of the spam.

Ed

I've no idea, but if it is that, it nullifies using DDG really.

You misunderstood. Ed means that its not DDG (or any other search-engine) who is the culprit, but you visiting one of the websites it (or any other search-engines) is pointing at.

iow, its (likely) the visited website which is to blame. Either itself, or by one of its third-party "visit count" doo-da's (like "google analytics") that it, and a lot of other websites, have on itvb (iow, can be used as a tracker).

I have to say though that your "and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to do the paperwork for me" blurb is rather inprecise. You could be meaning a DDG result (I don't think so), a popup
when you visit (certain?) websites (which might be JS at work), or even just emails (which would mean that /someone/ got hold of your email address).

Heck, you might even been hit by malware ...

Regards,
Rudy Wieser



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s|b,

Just use Startpage.com. It's Google without Google collecting you
history.

DDG promises the same : https://duckduckgo.com/privacy

As for Startpage ? This is what I get :

"English

This page cannot function without javascript. Please enable javascript and reload the page."

Although I can imagine an endless scrolling page for smartphones (driven by JS), but there is no need for that on a desktop machine. Especially not
*when it tells the website* that there is no JS available (google has the
same problem).

Regards,
Rudy Wieser



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On 04/09/2025 11:25, Jim the Geordie wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of Attorney'
and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to
do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as
it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Did you give your email address to the dogs? If so, why?

If not, you can clear the cookies from your browser. When you restart
it, you won't get any scam advertisers pumping out ads on your machine.

People still don't understand that there's no such thing as a free
lunch. Dogs is a very small company that relies on big corporations for support. They generate revenue through ads and use Google's search
engine to do so. I bet Google also pays them a fee to ensure it receives statistics for its targeted ads.

Just use Google. In my opinion, nobody has ever lost their job for recommending Google.

By the way there is no security issues when using a search engine. Your Subject topic is a bit misleading. Security becomes a problem when users foolishly clicks on a dodgy link.









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Ed,

Now then, there's a security toss-up conundrum; Google with the devil sitting in the CEO's desk, or Startpage with javascript.
(:-

Or just use DDG, which (still) works without JS. :-p

Regards,
Rudy Wieser



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On Thu, 4 Sep 2025 15:36:12 +0100, Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk>
wrote:

It amazes me constantly why people stick with Google. Look at these
usage stats;
https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

I should think Bing gets its 4% rating from being tied to MS Edge, which
in turn is tied to Windows.

Bing is the most popular search engine in the US.

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On Thu, 9/4/2025 8:22 AM, Jim the Geordie wrote:

On 04/09/2025 12:46, Ed Cryer wrote:

Jim the Geordie wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of Attorney' and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Are you sure it's DuckDuckGo that leaked your info?
Did you not go to one of the hits you got from it? That could be the source of the spam.

Ed

I've no idea, but if it is that, it nullifies using DDG really.

DDG "Argyle Socks"

Site one - sets cookie for having visited "Site one"

Site two - passed info to Google and Amazon, earning them some pennies
Can include attempts at cross-site cookies or DOM storage.

Site three - whatever scheme passes for "tracking" these days...

Even *government* sites have been known to use "Google Tools"
for analytics.

In the above example, DDG had *nothing* to do initially, with
recording your Argyle Sock fetish. Maybe DDG doesn't use DOM storage.
But the three sites made cookie entries.

*******

With some of the browsers, searching on "+++" locates DOM storage
folders. I (carefully) erase these at regular intervals, to hide
my Argyle Sock fetish.

If I search for cookies.sqlite, in the same folder is webappsstore.sqlite .
You will notice that webappsstore.sqlite grows faster than the cookie
file does. While exited from Firefox, you can delete both of these files.
There can be three files with "webappsstore" in the name, if Firefox
does a dirty shutdown, which really should happen "almost never". Those
are journal files for recovery.

These are examples of the generic topic of "browser cleaning". Once
the browser is cleaned, your association with coloured socks is not
lost entirely. But some of the more obnoxious advertising campaigns
are stopped, by a cleaning action.

There are automated tools for cleaning browsers.

The TEMU still shows up on some web pages. But the advertising is
always the same on those.

Paul

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On 04/09/2025 17:31, Humphry Davy wrote:

<https://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914>

Hello Humphry,

How's life treating you?

You still keep going on about this story that is more than 14 years old!

Published: February 1, 2011 at 8:45 am

You need to find something new to inform, educate and entertain the
masses here.



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Jim the Geordie wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of Attorney'
and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to
do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as
it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Something was put on your computer by one or more websites.
Find it and delete it.
Clear cookies on exit and use an ad blocker.
I never see ads, targeted or otherwise.


--- MBSE BBS v1.1.2 (Linux-x86_64)
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On 04/09/2025 17:31, Humphry Davy wrote:

Jim the Geordie says:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the
understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of
Attorney' and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors
offering to do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google
as it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Microsoft has been caught using its web browser to phone home with
search results which users ran on Google. <https://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our- search-results-62914>

Which web browser are you using? Can you be sure this is DuckDuckGo and
not your web browser's doing?

Opera
It could be that I accepted cookies from a site suggested by DDG, but
that would not explain several approaches from different law firms.

--
Jim the Geordie

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On 04/09/2025 18:19, Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Jim the Geordie wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the
understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of
Attorney' and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors
offering to do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google
as it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Something was put on your computer by one or more websites.
Find it and delete it.
Clear cookies on exit and use an ad blocker.
I never see ads, targeted or otherwise.

Use Ublock Origin and clear cookies when closing browser

--
Jim the Geordie

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Reply-To: sb.nospam@belgacom.net

On Thu, 4 Sep 2025 15:38:39 +0200, R.Wieser wrote:

Just use Startpage.com. It's Google without Google collecting you
history.

DDG promises the same : https://duckduckgo.com/privacy

But it's not Google results, so I get different results when I compare
both with the same key words. Also, DDG is showing me a lot of crap
("news") at the top.* And somehow is shows a language option 'Belgium
(fr)' instead of 'Belgium (nl)' (I'm Flemish.). The server I'm using in Flanders and Fx is set up to use Dutch as preferred language.



* Instant answers which can be turned off I just found out. It's the
same in SP.

--
s|b

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s|b,

Just use Startpage.com. It's Google without Google collecting you
history.

DDG promises the same : https://duckduckgo.com/privacy

But it's not Google results, so I get different results when I compare
both with the same key words. [snip]

I'm sorry, but wasn't the subject was "Search engine 'security'" ?

You're free to have your own preferences ofcourse, but that has got exactly zero to do with the subject.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser



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Jim the Geordie wrote:

On 04/09/2025 18:19, Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Jim the Geordie wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the
understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of
Attorney' and since then I have been receiving adverts from
solicitors offering to do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google
as it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Something was put on your computer by one or more websites.
Find it and delete it.
Clear cookies on exit and use an ad blocker.
I never see ads, targeted or otherwise.

Use Ublock Origin and clear cookies when closing browser

Interesting! Maybe check Windows startup programs?
Depending on what I am looking for I use: Google, Duck, Yandex, Bing,
and Brave. All have good and bad.


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Jim the Geordie <jim@geordieland.com> wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of Attorney'
and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to
do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as
it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Do you just use the search engine or are you using thr DDG browser? If the former, which browser do you use? If chrome all bets are off. Use Brave.


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On 04/09/2025 21:58, Chris wrote:

Jim the Geordie <jim@geordieland.com> wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the
understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of Attorney'
and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to
do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as
it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Do you just use the search engine or are you using thr DDG browser? If the former, which browser do you use? If chrome all bets are off. Use Brave.

Not DDG browser.
Browser is Opera.
Brave is fine, but not as easy on Android (for me)

--
Jim the Geordie

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Reply-To: sb.nospam@belgacom.net

On Thu, 4 Sep 2025 21:20:02 +0200, R.Wieser wrote:

Just use Startpage.com. It's Google without Google collecting you
history.

DDG promises the same : https://duckduckgo.com/privacy

But it's not Google results, so I get different results when I compare
both with the same key words. [snip]

I'm sorry, but wasn't the subject was "Search engine 'security'" ?

You're free to have your own preferences ofcourse, but that has got exactly zero to do with the subject.

Entschuldigung!

--
s|b

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S|b,

You're free to have your own preferences ofcourse, but that has got
exactly
zero to do with the subject.

Entschuldigung!

Don't worry about it.

Its just that such "my {your thing} is better than your {other thing}" conversations based on preferences seldom end well (and I didn't want to be sucked into one).

Apologies if I came over a bit harsh.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser



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Jim the Geordie <jim@geordieland.com> wrote:

On 04/09/2025 21:58, Chris wrote:

Jim the Geordie <jim@geordieland.com> wrote:

I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a long time, on the
understanding that it does not pass on details of searches.
However, I searched recently for details of 'Lasting Power of Attorney'
and since then I have been receiving adverts from solicitors offering to >>> do the paperwork for me (at considerable cost).
I have done my own at minimum cost, so 'up theirs', but it's the spam
that bothers me in this instance.
Is DuckDuckGo no better than Google? If so, I'm going back to Google as
it is a better search engine IMO, and I'll live with the spam.

Do you just use the search engine or are you using thr DDG browser? If the >> former, which browser do you use? If chrome all bets are off. Use Brave.

Not DDG browser.
Browser is Opera.
Brave is fine, but not as easy on Android (for me)

I also use Opera and haven't experienced that. Do you make sure not to be always logged into google?


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From: me@privacy.invalid

On Thu, 4 Sep 2025 14:46:35 +0000, Bing User wrote:

Just use Google. In my opinion, nobody has ever lost their job for recommending Google.

If you recommend Google, then at least show them the way to
Startpage.com.

--
s|b

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