It should be said that, if I understand it correctly, these worries are about the DDG browser, not their search, which is what most people (myself included) associate with them and care about.
If RMS took a job with Adobe, do you think people would question his commitment to open source?
In short though, you're right it isn't about our search engine. It also isn't about 3rd-party cookies (another point of confusion I've seen), which our browsers block (including for 3rd-party Microsoft scripts). 3rd-party Microsoft scripts are also further restricted in our browsers with additional web protections, e.g., fingerprinting protection, Global Privacy Control, referrer header trimming, etc.
What this article is talking about specifically is one web protection that the major browsers don't even attempt to do — stopping third-party tracking scripts from even loading on third-party websites. You can see that for yourself at the bottom 'tracker content blocking' section of this audit site: https://privacytests.org/ios.html (scroll to the very bottom).
So far they are being transparent. If you were a DDG user, you should keep supporting them for now and see where it takes us. There aren’t many tech companies that are privacy focused. And so far I think it’s in our best interest that privacy first becomes mainstream.
What this article is talking about specifically is one web protection that the major browsers don't even attempt to do — stopping third-party tracking scripts from even loading on third-party websites. You can see that for yourself at the bottom 'tracker content blocking' section of this audit site: https://privacytests.org/ios.html (scroll to the very bottom).
(For anyone wanting full context and a more detailed explanation, please see linked comment mentioned above -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31557587.
I don't believe you actually understand why people are upset with this -- it shows in the replies. You also don't seem to understand your users. It appears that you're entirely convinced that others are just misunderstanding you and that's why they don't see the genius/cleverness/importance/validity --whatever, in the actions DDG has carried out over the last months.
In all honesty, it feels like you're moving the company towards acquisition and looking for an exit.
I don't know many who use their browser, personally I moved over to Brave recently and so far so good.
Sad to hear that DDG lost it's integrity with this move.
Brave’s business model is based on ads which is very controversial, and that model always ends up compensating with the cost of user privacy.
I say this because NPR was running the same angle yesterday, and several "more reputable" sources are reporting the same thing as well.
Frankly, for DDG to spend all this money blasting "we actually care about privacy" advertisements in radio and online, and then to play around like this, it's certainly dangerous. That advertising campaign is probably why news outlets are even discussing this. "You defined your brand standard, why shouldn't we hold you to it".
I'm sure their marketing folks are upset! All that money on a message, undone in a flash.