DuckDuckGo’s private searches will pull up Apple Maps results

It’s hard to search the web these days and not find Google Maps data. But privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo did something relatively unusual on Tuesday — it brought in Apple Maps as its default mapping partner.

Using Apple’s MapKit JS framework that was announced at WWDC last year, mobile and desktop searches through DuckDuckGo for maps and addresses will pull Apple Maps data, satellite imagery, and visuals such as storefronts. The maps are interactive, so on mobile you can zoom in with your fingers, and on all platforms the maps include clickable listings with addresses and hours.

The separate “Maps” tab on DuckDuckGo will only bring up Apple Maps.

DuckDuckGo’s big thing is its strict privacy policy: searches are private, anonymous, and not tracked. The company says it doesn’t collect or share your personal data, and claims that any Apple Maps that come up in search results will adhere to its policies. 

Previously, DuckDuckGo pulled in mapping data from all over: Google Maps, Bing Maps, even Russia’s Yandex Maps through “bang” shortcuts to bring in search results from other sites. But because it was using other sites, data collection policies varied and weren’t controlled by DuckDuckGo’s privacy rules.

So now you can look up pizza and not have that pizzeria down the street follow you across the internet. 

UPDATE: Jan. 15, 2019, 3:08 p.m. PST Digital privacy expert David O’Brien, a senior researcher at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, weighed in on the partnership, noting that “anonymity doesn’t really exist on the internet for individuals.” But for what DDG and Apple Maps are offering he said both companies won’t be collecting as much information as other internet services. 

Even if both companies live up to their data collection standards, said he’s wary of how the privacy policies are implemented. “The devil can be in the implementation details and in how people are actually using these services,” O’Brien said.