Vivaldi's Private Browsing Tabs Now Use DuckDuckGo as Default Search Engine

Vivaldi on Thursday announced a collaboration with Internet privacy company DuckDuckGo to integrate the latter's search engine into the private browsing tab of the Vivaldi browser. With this integration, DuckDuckGo will be the default search engine of private browsing tabs in the browser - irrespective of the default search engine in the normal browsing mode. This is unlike other browsers such as Chrome and Firefox wherein default search engines for both modes remain the same.

Unlike other major search engines such as Google Search, Yahoo Search, and Microsoft Bing, DuckDuckGo does not send your browsing information to parties like your employer, computer administrator, and Internet Service Provider (ISP). However, all these alternatives do not store browsing history for future access.

Founded back in 2008, DuckDuckGo has widely been regarded as the "privacy-focused" alternative to Google mostly because it offers complete protection of browsing data with end-to-end encryption. "DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal data of its users," the company says. DuckDuckGo has been used on Safari and Tor Web browsers for the past few years.

"We believe privacy is a fundamental right and that users should not be tracked online or offline," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Vivaldi Technologies.

"A lot of people think their searches aren't tracked in private browsing modes. Unfortunately, that's not true. This new integration with Vivaldi enables people to get the privacy they expect and deserve in that mode," said Gabriel Weinberg, CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo.

Back in January, DuckDuckGo released its revamped version that brings features such as tracker network blocking, improved encryption, private search, and an improved Terms of Service rating system.