DuckDuckGo continues to promote user rights, donating some $1.1 million to groups promoting privacy, digital rights, and a better internet.

Once known primarily as an alternative, privacy-focused search engine, DuckDuckGo has been expanding its reach, developing an entire suite of applications and services aimed at helping individuals preserve their privacy.

In a year-end review, DuckDuckGo has revealed that it donated some $1.1 million in 2024 to a variety of privacy and digital rights causes, as well as to projects that play a fundamental role in the internet. The list of recipients includes:

• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
• Public Knowledge
• Article 19
• Demand Progress
• European Digital Rights
• Fight for the Future
• The Markup
• OpenMedia
• Restore the Fourth
• Signal
• Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P)
• Tech Policy Press
• Tech Oversight Project
• Algorithmic Justice League (AJL)
• Bit of Freedom
• British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)
• Center for Critical Internet Inquiry
• Create Commons (CC)
• Digital Rights Watch
• Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF)
• nyob
• Open Home Foundation
• Open Rights Group
• Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF)
• Perl and Raku Foundation
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
• Proof
• Tor Project

The donations range from $100,000 to the EFF, to $75,000 to Public Knowledge, several $50,000 donations, and the rest coming in at $25,000.

Even more telling, DuckDuckGo has donated $6,950,000 since 2011.

DuckDuckGo Is Proof Privacy and Profit Can Coexist

In a tech industry that has become obsessed with monetizing people’s personal data, collecting it, and selling it wholesale, DuckDuckGo has continued to be a beacon of privacy, proving that companies can respect—even protect—user privacy and still be profitable.

In fact, DuckDuckGo donating millions to other projects and causes demonstrates just how well the company is doing despite bucking the status quo.

Moving forward, more companies should take a page out of DuckDuckGo’s playbook, giving users control over their data, rather than exploiting it. Companies may just be surprised at how well such a course might be received.

In the meantime, DuckDuckGo is a company users should pay attention to, using their projects and services whenever possible.