Qwant and DuckDuckGo are two privacy-focused search engines that promise not to track you. A key part of their appeal is helping you avoid the privacy-violating practices that are all too common among major search engines.

However, talk is cheap. In the search engine business, it's easy to say one thing but turn around and do whichever one brings in the most money. Beyond the marketing promises, let's compare DuckDuckGo and Qwant to see which search engine is better at protecting its user's privacy.

Data Collection

Data Collection by any search engine company is a slippery slope. There's a very blurry line between the amount of data necessary and the amount that is beyond what's necessary. Once a search engine service crosses that blurry line, privacy goes out the window.

IP address, device type, device platform, search history, and links clicked on results pages are the kind of data collected by major search engine companies. But they don't even need to collect all that data to compromise your privacy. So, what kind of data do Qwant and DuckDuckGo collect on their users?

What Kind of Data Does Qwant Collect?

According to Qwant, the Qwant search engine service tries to collect as little data as possible. While this is true to some extent, it still collects some potentially privacy-violating data like your IP address, search terms, preferred languages, and news trends data.

Your IP address and search terms, for instance, are enough to build an advertising profile on you. How?

It's simple. If an IP address keeps searching for diapers, baby clothing, and baby monitors, while also searching for, maybe, female perfume and dresses, it won't be hard for an algorithm to predict that the user at that IP address is likely a pregnant woman or a nursing mom. In other words; blurry lines crossed—privacy out of the window.

However, Qwant is not exactly a lost cause in this regard. The way Qwant processes the data it collects places a lot of emphasis on protecting the privacy of the user. To be fair, they put quite a lot of effort into it. But Qwant's weak point is its reliance on third-party services whose privacy policies might not always respect the privacy of users.

For instance, Qwant relies on ad services from Microsoft for revenue. Consequently, Qwant needs to collect and transmit the IP addresses and search terms of its users to Microsoft. Microsoft, as some of us may know, isn't exactly a role model in privacy.

However, Qwant claims that it doesn't transmit IP addresses and search terms as a pair. Instead, search terms and IP addresses are transmitted differently using different services to make it hard for the parties involved to tie search terms to IP addresses. In other words, they make it hard for third-party services to build a profile on you. Nonetheless, some would argue that the mere fact that Qwant collects this kind of data is a potential privacy loophole.

What Kind of Data Does DuckDuckGo Collect?

Ideally, the right amount of data to collect is no personal data at all. DuckDuckGo does not collect your IP address, cookies, search terms, or any personally identifying information. Every time you use the DuckDuckGo search engine, you're using it as a completely new user. DuckDuckGo has no way of knowing whether you've been there before.

Most of the data generated as a result of your interaction with the DuckDuckGo is destroyed once you exit the search engine. This is part of the reason why DuckDuckGo doesn't have a clear idea of just how many people use its search engine. For them to know, they'd have to personally identify each unique user by storing data about them, but it avoids this. This strict data collection policy is why a lot of privacy-conscious users love Duckduckgo.

Comparing DuckDuckGo vs Qwant in terms of data collection, DuckDuckGo is clearly more privacy compliant.

Data Sharing with Third-Parties

Sometimes an online service keeps its promises of not violating your privacy, but the third parties it deals with may not always stick to the same rules. Once your data falls into the hands of a third party, there's no way of tracking what they do with it.

Qwant shares some of the data it collects with advertising partners like Microsoft. Your search keywords, IP address data, and geographical location are shared with Microsoft and are stored for at least 18 months following Microsoft privacy policies. Although Qwant tries to anonymize the data it shares, its methods aren't exactly foolproof.

And then there's the issue of being asked to turn over a user's data by law enforcement. Like any other company, even privacy-focused search engines service would have to comply with a court-ordered request for data. Consequently, this means your data can somehow fall into the hands of a third-party. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo claims it does not share any data with third parties.

Considering it doesn't store any personally identifying information, there's really no meaningful data that it could share that violates your privacy. Also, law enforcement isn't going to come asking for your data if nothing was stored in the first place. You can't share what you don't have, can you?

Once again comparing Qwant vs DuckDuckGo on the data sharing front, DuckDuckGo wins.

Search Leakage

Search leakage happens when a search engine does not destroy or properly anonymize any data that can be passed on to a third party when you click on a link on search result pages. Examples of data that can be leaked include your browsing history, search terms, and in some cases, cookies. Both DuckDuckGo and Qwant have several measures in place to guard against search leakages, including, but not limited to, encryption of your data.

However, one troubling privacy problem for both search engines is that they retain your search terms in the URL of their result pages. Although this doesn't seem like a privacy problem, it is. By retaining your search terms in their URL parameters, both DuckDuckGo and Qwant inadvertently expose your search history to whichever browser you choose to use.

This means, despite all the efforts to keep your search anonymous, everything could be undone if you use a browser that snoops on your browsing history, specifically your use of search engines.

When comparing DuckDuckGo vs Qwant in terms of search leakage, neither option convincingly outperforms the other.

Which Search Engine Is More Private?

If you need a less intrusive alternative to the likes of Google, Bing, and Yahoo, then either Qwant or DuckDuckGo can do the job. Both search engines make considerable efforts to ensure what you do on their platform is only your business.

However, if you need the strictest possible privacy options on offer, then DuckDuckGo might be the better option.