DuckDuckGo on Thursday announced the launch of Privacy Pro, a new three-in-one subscription service it hopes will help customers further protect their online privacy. The bundle includes a dedicated VPN, personal information deletion service, and identity theft recovery service. But is it worth adding another $10 in subscription fees to your monthly bill? Honestly, it probably is.
DuckDuckGo VPN
Since DuckDuckGo just released this suite, I haven't had a chance to test this new VPN yet. But based on DuckDuckGo's description, it sounds pretty standard. Of course, a VPN encrypts your internet traffic so neither your ISP nor DuckDuckGo can see what you're doing. The company develops and operates this VPN, but it does use the open-source WireGuard protocol to encrypt your traffic. It also claims that it doesn't log any data that could connect you to what you do online, including any DuckDuckGo service. You can run the VPN on up to five devices simultaneously through the DuckDuckGo browser.
DuckDuckGo says it uses VPN servers in the United States, Europe, and Canada and will add more servers in the future. Note that by default, you'll connect to the server closest to your current location (DuckDuckGo says this is done to increase speed), but you can manually adjust the server yourself. Be sure to make this change if you want to watch Netflix from a server located in Europe, or if you simply want the server to be as far away from your real location as possible.
Personal Identification Clearance Service
When you subscribe, you also get DuckDuckGo's personally identifiable removal service. This feature looks for your information in common data brokers and, if any is found, requests that the website owner remove it on your behalf. It then proceeds to scan the internet looking for more data. You can view the data that DuckDuckGo has removed from the dashboard in your browser. The service needs to be set up on the Mac or PC at startup.
The company didn't launch the service out of thin air: It acquired personal information deletion service Removaly in 2022. This is one way to achieve success.
Identity Theft Recovery
Finally, if you've paid for the privilege, DuckDuckGo will do its best to help you recover your stolen identity. This service is provided by Iris Powered by Generali and will work with you to create a case if your identity has been stolen. It actually does a lot of things: Iris will freeze your credit, help you replace important documents like your driver's license and passport, provide a $500 cash advance if you live more than 100 miles from home, contact a health care company with any information to help you Make fraudulent claims in your name and reimburse you for some purchases you made while trying to regain your identity.
Is this a good deal?
DuckDuckGo claims that seeking other companies to subscribe to these services individually can cost up to $30 per month, while The Duck charges $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year (broken down this way, that's about $8.33 per month).
While adding another $10 a month to your potentially long subscription list may seem like a big ask, the price for this plan seems pretty reasonable. If you care enough about your privacy when using the Internet that you sign up for these three services separately, you'd probably have a hard time piecing together a similar situation for $10. A VPN alone can set you back anywhere from $5 to $14 a month; a personal information deletion service costs $4 to $10.75 a month (DeleteMe is $10.75 a month); and an identity theft recovery service costs $7.50 to $9.
There aren’t many privacy bundles like this, at least not that I’ve seen. Some (like NordVPN) offer dark web monitoring, but not to the level DuckDuckGo advertises here.
That said, if you don't care much about personal information deletion or identity theft recovery, and you just want a reliable VPN, you have your options, some of which are cheaper than DuckDuckGo. Of course, there are even free VPNs, but these are generally far less effective than paid options, either because they are much more restrictive or because they run privacy risks that paid options don’t.
My advice? If you're interested, give it a try, but stick to the monthly plan rather than the annual plan. You're better off choosing between different VPN and privacy services until you find one you really like, rather than risk depriving yourself of a service you don't like for a year. If DuckDuckGo's VPN is on par with other VPNs like ExpressVPN or CyberGhost, the extra security features will be a welcome bonus.
You can sign up for DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro here.
Check out our favorite paid VPNs here:
Mulward : £5 per month
IVPN : $6 per month (Standard), $10 per month (Professional)
ProtonVPN : Free, $10 per month (paid)
Surfshark : $13.99 per month
CyberGhost : $12.99 per month
ExpressVPN : $12.95 per month
