404 Media has obtained the list of sites and services that ICE contractor ShadowDragon pulls data from. ShadowDragon sources data from all over the web and lets government analysts easily search it and draw connections between people.
Duckduckgo is not the problem. They are using publicly scrapable information. So for instance if they have fingerprinted your device they see you go to duckduckgo, then they see you access a site about buying guns, it becomes trivial to determine what you searched for. They would not have direct access to what you search on duckduckgo and duckduckgo is not giving them access. They are using various methods to collect data based on habits. You can use literally any service you want and they could do the same thing.
If that’s true, why bother “monitoring” a search engine? This whole list screams of somebody who knows nothing about tech put out a vague RFP and a contractor pulled a list of “top sites” and used it to justify an egregious proposal cost.
DOGE, if you’re looking for waste and fraud, perhaps here’s a good source.
They do it all to build up a huge web of interconnected data points. Duckduckgo itself they might take as evidence that someone is trying to hide something. Then the government goes to a FISA court and gets permission to have other tech companies hand over all your data. Its not any one site its the picture that can be gleamed from all the data available across all the sites.
Aww man seriously DuckDuckGo is on the list? Ugh… Welp, does anyone know of any good alternatives? (I hear Ecosia’s not half-bad…)
Duckduckgo is not the problem. They are using publicly scrapable information. So for instance if they have fingerprinted your device they see you go to duckduckgo, then they see you access a site about buying guns, it becomes trivial to determine what you searched for. They would not have direct access to what you search on duckduckgo and duckduckgo is not giving them access. They are using various methods to collect data based on habits. You can use literally any service you want and they could do the same thing.
Oh shit.
Well that clears things up. Thanks for the explanation. thumbs-up
If that’s true, why bother “monitoring” a search engine? This whole list screams of somebody who knows nothing about tech put out a vague RFP and a contractor pulled a list of “top sites” and used it to justify an egregious proposal cost.
DOGE, if you’re looking for waste and fraud, perhaps here’s a good source.
They do it all to build up a huge web of interconnected data points. Duckduckgo itself they might take as evidence that someone is trying to hide something. Then the government goes to a FISA court and gets permission to have other tech companies hand over all your data. Its not any one site its the picture that can be gleamed from all the data available across all the sites.