Privacy-focused consumer technology company DuckDuckGo launched a new Privacy Pro subscription on Thursday that bundles a VPN service, personal data removal and identity theft recovery.
The plan, which costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year, is currently only available to people in the US. This is the company’s first step toward a subscription service integrated into the DuckDuckGo browser.
DuckDuckGo has been profitable since 2014, but has previously relied on advertising revenue. The subscription service gives the company a new way to make money.
Photo credit: DuckDuckGo
The VPN uses the open-source WireGuard protocol to protect your identity while you visit various websites on the Internet. The company said that all DNS requests are also routed through DuckDuckGo’s own DNS resolvers, so internet service providers (ISPs) cannot snoop on your browsing history.
With its personal information removal service, DuckDuckGo searches dozens of data broker websites for details like your name and address. If the service finds your data on one of these websites, it will request its removal and also process email correspondence with them.
The company says it uses Removaly, a startup that acquired DuckDuckGo in 2022, for this feature. (At the time, Removaly’s founder, Kyle Krzeski, Posted on X that a data protection company took over the startup without naming it.)
The third feature of DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Pro plan is Identity Theft Recovery, where a consultant will help you recover your identity loss 24/7. These include financial losses, correcting credit reports by even freezing the report until identity is restored, and replacing and canceling items such as driver’s licenses, bank cards, and passports. The company said that the remediation agent will work with you, complete all formalities and contact various companies.
Photo credit: DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo states that to protect user privacy, it keeps no logs of users’ VPN activities, the data provided when personal information is removed is stored on the local device, and the company assigns a random ID when users opt in Sign up for Privacy Pro service. ‘
Earlier this year, DuckDuckGo added cross-device syncing of passwords and bookmarks to make this information easier to access.
Earlier this year, US Department of Justice court filings against Google revealed that DuckDuckGo accounted for just 2.5% of general searches in the US in 2021 and between 0.5% and 2.5% in Europe in 2023.