Favoriting Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from January 29, 2018 Favoriting

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Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm

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Favoriting January 29, 2018: Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo

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This week, a conversation with Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, a search engine that doesn't track you.

Here's the DuckDuckGo announcement of their new "privacy essentials" add-on for your Web browser.

Gabriel's answer to "Why should I use DuckDuckGo instead of Google?"

But first...

Last week's tech news:


At Davos, aka the World Economic Forum, billionaire George Soros listed some global problems: Nuclear weapons. Democracy in crisis. Google and Facebook.

Wait.. say that list again? Yes - Soros said that Google and Facebook are a "menace" that have become "obstacles to innovation." Read for yourself: Here's the transcript of Soros's remarks.

But Soros is hardly the only influential pointing out problems.


Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, gave this suggestion at Davos, on how to regulate Facebook and other social media companies: "I think that you do it exactly the same way that you regulated the cigarette industry. Here's a product: Cigarettes. They're addictive, they're not good for you." Watch Marc Benioff's comments on CNBC.

Techtonic friends, it's time to learn how to live without Google and Facebook. Or at the very least, to how to use them less.

- - -

Subscribe to the Techtonic podcast to catch up on past episodes.

Artist Track Images Approx. start time
  Gabriel Weinberg is founder and CEO of Duck Duck Go, a search engine that doesn't track you (unlike Google or Facebook). Here Gabriel describes how Duck Duck Go is thriving by treating its users with basic decency.
  Mark's intro  
Favoriting
0:01:38 (Pop-up)
  Interview with Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of Duck Duck Go  
Favoriting
0:13:55 (Pop-up)
  Your calls and comments  
Favoriting
0:40:01 (Pop-up)
Tarrus Riley  Micro Chip   Favoriting   0:55:47 (Pop-up)


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Listener comments!

Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:01pm
listener james from westwood:

Evening, Mark and all!!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

They have DuckDuckGo as the default here @ the library I must use...
No tracking !
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:03pm
Michael 98145:

quack
Avatar 6:03pm
RomanDogBird:

Goo le?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:04pm
Fuzzy:

Always set as my default search engine.
  6:05pm
melinda:

Hi all. I just started using duck duck last week.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:06pm
queems:

i just started using it on my phone this morning!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:08pm
Fuzzy:

I am also excited to recommend Firefox 59 (Quantum) with built-in tracker blocking that you can set to "always on" -- it's fast, and it's great! Especially with Cookie Autodelete extension, my online privacy has been enhanced 100%!
  6:10pm
bayowulf:

Question for Mr Weinberg - Does a !g search get tracked by google? Thanks!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:14pm
Michael 98145:

"From the middle of the 19th century, Davos ... became a popular destination for the sick and ailing because the microclimate in the high valley was deemed excellent by doctors and recommended for lung disease patients. Robert Louis Stevenson, who suffered from tuberculosis, wintered in Davos in 1880 upon the recommendation of his Edinburgh physician ..."
  6:15pm
melinda:

Haha, regulatory disruption, yes.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:15pm
ultradamno:

I've been using Duck Duck for a couple of months pretty much exclusively. It's no Alta Vista, but still pretty cool.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:17pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

@ultradamno: What's the advantage of AltaVista?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:17pm
Mark Hurst:

Hi all, thanks for showing up! James, Rev Rabbit, Michael, RDB, Fuzzy, Melinda, queems, Fuzzy, bayowulf, ultradamno!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:17pm
queems:

remember lycos
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:17pm
ultradamno:

A little tongue in cheek, RRN63
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

Ah. Explains...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
Mark Hurst:

Alta Vista, Lycos, Infoseek, Webcrawler, Inktomi (and others) were all early search engines in the 90s - first beaten out by Yahoo, then by Google.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
Fuzzy:

Pour one out for gopher.
Avatar 6:18pm
northguineahills:

I've been using DuckDuckGo for most searches for about 3+years.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
queems:

dogpile
Avatar 🤖 6:19pm
herb.nyc:

dumb me, i've never heard of private browsing. really. smart me, i don't use private browsing.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
queems:

i'm really looking forward to searching for all of my weird medical problems without being tracked
  6:20pm
SeanG:

this is amazing!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:20pm
Michael 98145:

the closest i ever get to google is bing ...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:20pm
Fuzzy:

I've been using DDG for years now -- even got me some cool free stickers!
  6:21pm
seth from muddy creek:

This segment is great. Thanks!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:21pm
Fuzzy:

Is it misleading, or is it a misunderstanding on the user's part?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...if you have to ask...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
Phil with the phone:

@Fuzzy how'd you get the stickers? Asking for a friend.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:23pm
Mark Hurst:

@Seth & @SeanG, thanks! @Fuzzy, I would guess that Google would say "the users just misunderstand us... 'Incognito' is just a marketing name - it doesn't actually MEAN you'll be incognito"
  6:23pm
JakeGould:

Private browsing protects you from other people who use your computer from snooping on you. Google knows all!
Avatar 6:24pm
northguineahills:

My google search profile says I'm a male in his 60s, If only, I have 20+ less years before the sweet, sweet , relief of death (I have a lot of boring interests, apparently)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:24pm
Fuzzy:

@Phil: It was a promo that DDG offered years ago when they were just starting out -- just emailed them my snailmail address. I don't know if they are still available for the asking or not.
  6:24pm
JakeGould:

Also, I do web development for a living and kinda quit the content/ad game back in 2011. Back then things were reasonable, ad sizes were consistent and videos did not autoplay. 7 years later it’s another, obnoxious world.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:25pm
Mark Hurst:

Things have certainly changed online in the past few years.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:26pm
Michael 98145:

us geezers never foresaw all this back in '89
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:27pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

The promise of Decentralized connectivity really went out the window...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:28pm
Michael 98145:

at least it gave us downstreamers WFMU
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:28pm
Fuzzy:

Firefox 59 beta!
Avatar 6:28pm
geezerette:

I use Duck Duck Go & Firefox.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:28pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Are we not men? We are Devos!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:29pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

@Micahel98145: Via a specific Browser & a Provider...
Avatar 6:30pm
glenn:

so instead of googling drunk sorority squirt queens, i what, duck them?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:31pm
Michael 98145:

i still have my 2005 copy of "don't click on the blue e!" and the 1.5 CD of firefox
  6:31pm
JakeGould:

Google’s sway over the Internet is crazy. Nowadays it’s Facebook or a Google search… But now, what does a Google search provide for the small guys? Very little.

Search for “Weather” and you get Google’s internal weather results first before any small service.

If you are a designer and want to do RGB to HEX conversion? Google tosses their results first.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:31pm
queems:

LOLOL
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:31pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

DuckDuck seems very good @ image search. Does Google have any real monopoly on a better wider Search? Does Duck have any special virtues in this way (the small matter of PRIVACY aside) ?
  6:32pm
JakeGould:

Ever hear of “Canvas fingerprinting?” Creepy way to ID a user without using traditional tracking techniques. Interesting technique and pretty creepy. en.wikipedia.org...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:33pm
Fuzzy:

I hate to admit it, but I think Google Image Search is better.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:33pm
Mark Hurst:

Years ago Microsoft got in anti-trust trouble for the same behavior, trying to kill Netscape in favor of their wonderful Internet Explorer browser.
  6:33pm
seth from muddy creek:

Is the tracking equal for public vs private entity websites?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:34pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

@Fuzzy: Are we a self-fulfilling prophecy by using Google more?
Is there anything comparable to faceborg for Networking??
Avatar 6:34pm
Carmichael:

I remember Netscape ...
  6:34pm
JakeGould:

@RevolutionRabbitNov63: The conundrum is for a system like reverse image search to work best it needs more data. So the more data it gets, the better it is and it ends up being the dominant tool. And it uses all of the data. It’s a screwy and scary codependency model. It’s the irony of absorbing data.
  6:35pm
JakeGould:

Nutscrape versus Internet Exploder
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:35pm
Fuzzy:

@Jake: yeah, that's a tough one to beat without using Noscript disabling Javascript altogether, which is hardly a practical solution.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:36pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...like - what's close to iTunes for all my Audio in one place?...
  6:36pm
JakeGould:

@RevolutionRabbitNov63: Exactly.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:37pm
Mark Hurst:

I'm also interested in that question - if Duck Duck Go replaces Google, then what more community-minded product could replace Facebook? iTunes? etc.
  6:37pm
JakeGould:

@MarkHurst: Go back to the Usenet.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:37pm
Fuzzy:

@RR63: I admit it's tough to kick the Google when you've been using Gmail for years and that's the email address that everyone knows me at; and I use an Android phone too. A real conundrum.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:38pm
ultradamno:

A My Deja relaunch?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:38pm
Mark Hurst:

@Fuzzy I'd recommend FastMail.com for email - just send out the new email address to friends :)
Avatar 6:38pm
βrian:

I toggle javascript on and off all the time, just trying to maintain some level of security hygiene.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:38pm
Mark Hurst:

You can also set up your Gmail account to forward all its mail to a folder in your FastMail account.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:39pm
Michael 98145:

... not to mention many employers are migrating their private email systems to Gmail and Outlook. smart move, huh?
  6:39pm
JakeGould:

@βrian: Use Mozilla FireFox and install Privacy Badger and AdBlock Plus.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

Thx for fastmail tip.
Harry Shearer on 'LeShow' likes reporting on 'smart home' hacks...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
Fuzzy:

@Mark: I have a Proton Mail address set up and ready to go, when I finally decide to "go dark" to most everyone except friends and family.
Avatar 6:40pm
βrian:

+1 re FastMail. It also makes it easy to set up alias e-mail addresses if you don't want to expose your primary address.
  6:41pm
JakeGould:

Perhaps the future of the Internet is local meshed networks and LANs? So like a local LAN that is literally just for you and your neighbors? Has anybody done that? Like a useful captive portal that is like a hyperlocal Craigslist?
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:41pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

I've been thinking of getting a Google Pixel 2 phone. Will that track me? Is there a DuckDuckGo package to block its tracking of me or a DuckDuckGo phone I could buy?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:41pm
Mark Hurst:

Call us at 201-209-9368. Question - What do you think about switching away from Google (as well as, potentially, other Big Tech services)? What's your experience been in trying out alternatives?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
Phil with the phone:

Yeah, what Mark said.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
Folsom:

what where the last two browsers Gabriel mentioned?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
Phil with the phone:

@Folsom Brave & Vivaldi
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:43pm
queems:

i'm uncomfortable with the idea of switching away from my gmail account because it is just so ubiquitous. and i'm uncomfortable that i'm uncomfortable about it. but i already left facebook like 5 years ago, so i guess that is a start
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:44pm
Fuzzy:

I have Brave on my phone -- it's pretty good, but might switch to Firefox if it has the same tracker-blocking functionality as the Windows version.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:44pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

Oh - fastmail has a fee...ok...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:44pm
Fuzzy:

@queems: ditto.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:45pm
Michael 98145:

guess freedom isn't free
  6:45pm
sim:

Hey, have they had Cliff Stoll on?
Avatar 🤖 6:46pm
herb.nyc:

switching away from google? i'm like queems. but maybe if my circle of friends and family do so, then i will.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:46pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

How about the report today that fitness trackers used by soldiers in Afghanistan are disclosing their every move?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:46pm
queems:

@fuzzy it makes me skin crawl to think about how intertwined my whole life is with my dumb gmail account. bank account, insurance, etc
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:46pm
Fuzzy:

10minutemail.com is a free temporary email address service that I haven't actually used yet, but sounds like it might help in the privacy wars.
  6:46pm
JakeGould:

I believe the web browser is called “Brave”: brave.com

“Vidalia” is what TOR’s web browser used to be called.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
Michael 98145:

has the smoke cleared regarding net neutrality? don't think so. wait till $$ is involved.
  6:47pm
sim:

IceWeasel and Palefox are also secure browsers focused on privacy.
Avatar 6:47pm
βrian:

I have no problem with the FastMail fee, since I really do need e-mail and the functionality is good. Plus since I own my own domain, I can switch if I want to without losing my permanent address.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:48pm
Fuzzy:

@queems I know it -- my gmail address is my main email. That's not right -- I need to change that.
  6:48pm
Lixiviated Life:

ProtonMail.com
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:49pm
queems:

@fuzzy same! at the time, i just didn't even think about it, because it seemed so much better than my previous yahoo email address
Avatar 6:49pm
geezerette:

We need to skip ahead to actual telepathy. (Yes, I know there's no such thing.)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:49pm
Fuzzy:

Google Ate My Balls.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:50pm
Bas NL:

From Wikipedia: "Some of DuckDuckGo's source code is free software hosted at GitHub under the Apache 2.0 License,[10] but the core is proprietary."
Hmmm...
Avatar 6:50pm
northguineahills:

I work for a small environmental startup, and at 41, am the youngest member. I'm trying to navigate the whole organization away from gmail, and have gotten us away from sharing data via gmail. Baby steps...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:50pm
melinda:

Ugh, hadn't really thought about the gmail issue. It's not my primary email but it works better on my ipod so all my regular mail is forwarded to it.
  6:50pm
JakeGould:

@northguineahills: The thing is that the alternative to Google mail in most offices is… Microsoft Exchange.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:51pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

'If it's Free - *you* are the Product.'
...oh yeah, that's right...
  6:51pm
J:

Is Proton free?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:51pm
melinda:

I wouldn't mind a small fee, I just need it to work on my mobile device.
Avatar 6:52pm
βrian:

I know a lot of people who pay to watch TV. I just can't do that.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
Fuzzy:

I have a Proton Mail free account -- thinking about going paid for a small monthly amount and adding their VPN to the mix. Oh -- and I should actually start using it and get off the Gmail.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
Michael 98145:

what JakeGould just said
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

The school district here has issued ChromeBooks to the students and the teachers are starting to use the Google education package. Ruh-ro. At least it isn't Apple-focused, right?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
queems:

i remember when only college students were on facebook
  6:53pm
Lixiviated Life:

Pretty sure protonmail is free
  6:53pm
J:

Ello?
  6:53pm
JakeGould:

What about Ello? ello.co
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:54pm
Fuzzy:

Proton has a basic free account, and 2 or 3 paid tiers with more storage and such.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:54pm
Michael 98145:

this is a great discussion. you don't hear this sort of thing on NPR :)
Avatar 6:54pm
geezerette:

Can we replace FB with...faces?!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
chris:

google OS laptops
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

This is a great Program - super relevant - useful even...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
queems:

now i'm having an existential email crisis
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
Fuzzy:

The Proton VPN service just started -- there's a free option, as well as paid options with more servers and faster speeds.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
Michael 98145:

i'm prettier on facebook. oh, wait, i'm not on facebook.
  6:55pm
Gilly:

Signing up for Protonmail now
  6:55pm
SeanG:

how do you get to that "youtube-nocookie" site?
Avatar 6:56pm
northguineahills:

Yahoo is my dummy account.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
ultradamno:

I still have a Hotmail throwaway acct
Avatar 6:57pm
βrian:

Purge your cookies early and often. I do it several times per hour.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Michael 98145:

interesting protonmail is "Based in Switzerland" like a bank account
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
queems:

dare i say, toss your cookies
  6:58pm
JakeGould:

@Brian: Hate to break the news to you… It’s not just cookies anymore!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

This Program is Podcast too...that could be handy...
Avatar 6:58pm
Honeybear:

There are plenty of "social network-like" sites that aren't FB - Reddit and Quora are probably the largest. But they're only partially "social". In general, the more "social" you are, the more... FB you are. And the nature of monopolies being what they are... there can kind of be only one "big" social network -- which right now is FB.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
ultradamno:

Cut out cookies altogether, go Web TV.
Avatar 6:58pm
βrian:

Thanks, Mr Mark Hurst. Good to hear these things being discussed, and sanely.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
Fuzzy:

@Michael: yes, that is a strong selling point!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
queems:

rip myspace
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
chris:

thanks, Mark. great one!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
Michael 98145:

... there are also Flash Cookies ...
Avatar 6:59pm
Jeff Moore:

I really don't recall examples of underhanded or deceptive practices by Google - sure, it's disturbing that they're so pervasive (monocultures are generally worrisome) but AFAIK they do what they say in their Terms of Service (and I've seen them send warnings - with multiple followups - when the privacy policy for a product was scheduled to change from the product's initial policy). Because they're so big, they could turn on us and there'd be little to do about it - but so far they seem to behave impressively honorably.

By contrast - I don't trust Facebook as far as I could throw their gigantic datacenters. They routinely change how they use your data, don't announce the changes ahead of time, and keep moving where you go in their settings to opt out of stuff. They just seem to act in bad faith really consistently.
  6:59pm
JakeGould:

MySpace ate my balls.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
Fuzzy:

@Brian: check out Cookie Autodelete extension for Firefox.
Avatar 6:59pm
Davee:

I've been using DUCK DUCK GO for 10 years now and I am very happy!.
Avatar 7:00pm
βrian:

A good discussion topic: Are there open source authentication sites?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 7:00pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

How many times has gmail been hacked?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 7:03pm
Fuzzy:

Good stuff-- see y'all next week! Thanks Mark!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 7:05pm
Bas NL:

Thanks Mark!
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