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my Searches in duckduckgo seem affected by my IP address (self.privacy)

submitted 6 months ago by secretlyaddictedtolinux to c/privacy

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i vary my IP randomly to try to be tracked less on the internet by ad companies.

when using duckduckgo, i notice my results of certain searches seem slightly correlated to the IP I use if there's anything that could be impacted by location.

this is also not just country specific, where duckduckgo is narrowing this down based on country

i am not sure if duckduckgo is passing on the IP or if somehow bing has partnered with data centers or ISPs to try to guess the IPs going into duckduckgo.

I also may be sensing this correlation and it's just random and not there. i could be wrong.

Does anyone else ever notice this or wonder about this?

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[–] secretlyaddictedtolinux 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

also there's not always an obvious correlation. so for instance if my IP is in New Mexico, and I am looking for "best new vacation destinations" I could get results like "Vacation Getaways to Mexico" and also "2024 Vacation Destinations" and also "Best Places to Visit in France" and also "Fun Destinations in New Mexico" and they are all mixed together, but it feels like the total is possibly informed by the a guess of the IP even if duckduckgo isn't passing that on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Just checked your vacation search and I'm getting a best of lists from different websites. So far it looks like the usual places people would want to visit and nothing specific to where I'm located.

[–] secretlyaddictedtolinux 1 points 6 months ago

the original thing that seemed strange to me may have been a coincidence then.

my actual experience was worse than the example. it's like i was using a berlin based IP address, and did a search for luggage, and then the result was "Berlin Luggage Ecofriendly Designs." It could have been coincidental, but a top result had the city of the IP in it and there was nothing I mentioned in the search related to the IP. I also use a browser and OS system such that duckduckgo should know from javascript that I am likely and English speaker.

But sometimes coincidences happen.