Does DuckDuckGo store search queries tied to IP addresses or identifiers?

1. What DuckDuckGo officially says about tying searches to identities

DuckDuckGo’s privacy page explicitly states that when users employ its services the company “has no way to create a history of your search queries or the sites you browse,” and gives the example that it may know a volume of queries for “cute cat pictures” without knowing who made them, which is presented as a deliberate design principle ^[1]. The company also explains that some optional features—like Email Protection—require personal information and have separate policies, but that core search is treated anonymously ^[1].

2. How independent summaries and privacy guides characterize the practice

Multiple third‑party guides and explainers repeat DuckDuckGo’s claim that queries are not stored or tied to IP addresses, framing that as the search engine’s central privacy advantage versus mainstream competitors; UMA Technology and other privacy‑oriented outlets state the platform does not log or associate queries with IP addresses ^{[2] [3] [4]}. These sources present the position as both a technical and policy commitment rather than merely marketing language ^{[2] [3]}.

3. Technical mechanisms and settings that support anonymity

DuckDuckGo documents the use of anonymous cookies, anonymous URL parameters for settings, and “anonymous experiments” for product improvement that, per the policy, avoid storing information that could identify users or their searches ^{[1] [6]}. The help pages describe that settings persist within the browser and offer mechanisms to avoid cookies entirely, which aligns with the company’s stance that it avoids linking query data to individual identifiers ^{[6] [1]}.

4. Documented edge cases and technical caveats

Developer discussions highlight a nuanced technical behavior in which opening DuckDuckGo from a page can trigger browser storage access grants—an implementation detail that has raised questions about what storage potentially becomes accessible in some contexts; this does not on its face show DuckDuckGo tying queries to IPs, but it is a documented technical caveat in public forums ^[5]. The company’s own policy also warns users that when they click through to other websites or use !bang shortcuts, those third parties’ practices apply, making the browsing path outside DuckDuckGo subject to separate data collection ^[1].

5. Sources, incentives and what is not shown in the reporting

All provided sources—DuckDuckGo’s privacy policy and privacy‑oriented summaries—consistently present the non‑retention and non‑association claim ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}; this consistency could reflect both the company’s genuine engineering choices and a clear privacy‑branding incentive. The materials do not include independent forensic log audits, legal‑process transparency reports, or examples of whether and how the company would respond to compelled disclosure requests, so the public record here does not establish how DuckDuckGo would behave under a court order or subpoena—an absence the sources do not attempt to fill ^[1].

6. Bottom line

Based on DuckDuckGo’s own privacy statement and multiple independent explainers, the company says it does not store search queries tied to IP addresses or other identifiers and that it cannot create a history linking queries to individuals ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}. Public technical notes and forum posts flag implementation details and interactions with browser storage and external sites that merit scrutiny, but the supplied reporting contains no direct evidence contradicting DuckDuckGo’s core claim that search queries are not logged and associated with personal identifiers ^{[5] [6]}. Where the available sources are silent—such as on compelled legal disclosures or internal log retention under extraordinary circumstances—no definitive assertion can be made from the provided material ^[1].