Latest news with #DuckDuckGo
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
OpenAI ends ChatGPT users' option to index chats on search engines
Aug. 2 (UPI) -- OpenAI is ending the option to have Google and other search engines index user chats with ChatGPT and make the content of those chats discoverable on searches. Google accounts for more than 89% of all online searches, which made private chats on ChatGPT potentially widely accessible when indexed on that search engine and others. "This feature introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn't intend to, so we're removing the option," Dan Stuckey, OpenAI chief information security officer, told PC Mag. Bing, DuckDuckGo and other search engines will continue to index discoverable chats, but only for a while longer. "We're also working to remove indexed content from the relevant search engines," Stuckey said. OpenAI recently enabled the index option for private ChatGPT discussions as an experiment, Stuckey added, but that experiment is ending. A message informed users their indexed chats were searchable on Google and other search engines, but many users did not read the message or don't understand the extent to which their conversations might be available to others. Such conversations are accessible when affixing "site:chatgpt/share" to search queries when those conversations are indexed. News of the indexed private conversations with ChatGPT first was reported by FastCompany on Wednesday in a story detailing Google's indexing of ChatGPT conversations. The indexing does not provide information on respective users, but the conversations might include personal information when mentioned by the users while conversing with ChatGPT. Many users also were unaware that sharing a conversation with someone via social apps, such as WhatsApp, when saving the URL for future use would cause Google to make it potentially widely available to millions of people. OpenAI officials recently announced they were appealing a court order requiring the preservation of all chats that users delete after conversing with ChatGPT, Ars Technica reported. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Yahoo
Windows 11's Controversial Recall Feature Will Soon be Turned Off in Brave's Browser
Microsoft's Recall feature which automatically takes screenshots of whatever you're doing on your computer has proven controversial drawing criticism from many privacy experts. Now, a popular privacy-focused web browser has confirmed it's turning the feature off by default. Brave's upcoming version 1.81 of its browser will automatically turn off Recall. Brave said in a blog post, 'We think it's vital that your browsing activity on Brave does not accidentally end up in a persistent database, which is especially ripe for abuse in highly-privacy-sensitive cases such as intimate partner violence.' Brave is the only major web browser to do this with alternatives like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge allowing Recall to work. Even privacy-focused browsers like DuckDuckGo, Firefox, and Tor Browser allow for Recall to work. Brave's move may now inspire some of these other browsers to do similar. If you like the idea of Microsoft's Recall feature, you can still use it within Brave. Once the update has rolled out, you'll be able to turn it back on by heading to Settings > Privacy and security and then finding the toggle called Block Microsoft Recall. Microsoft hasn't made it easy for developers to turn off Recall in applications. Back in May, Signal announced it would be disabling all screenshots within its Microsoft app as a way to stop Recall gaining access to user's conversations. This limitation also meant tools like screen readers stopped working, and you're no longer able to do typical screenshots within the app. Brave's process to make this happen has meant it was able to implement the change without it impacting screenshotting or other tools. Microsoft allows developers to have Recall turned off during private browsing sessions, so Brave has now made all of its sessions appear like that to Windows. Brave said, 'We've extended that logic to apply to all Brave browser windows. We tell the operating system that every Brave tab is 'private', so Recall never captures it.' Brave also used its announcement to ask Microsoft to change its policy for other applications. The brand says, 'While it's heartening that Microsoft recognizes that Web browsers are especially privacy-sensitive applications, we hope they offer the same granular ability to turn off Recall to all privacy-minded application developers."
CNET
23-07-2025
- CNET
Here's How to Hide AI-Generated Images in Search Results in DuckDuckGo
With a new tool built into DuckDuckGo's privacy-focused search engine, you can hide AI-generated images from your search results, which could help ensure you see fewer misleading or fake photos. The filter isn't on by default, though, so you have to enable it. Here's how. 1. Go to 2. Search for an image, something like "baby peacock." 3. Go to the Images tab. 4. Click AI Images: show to open a dropdown menu. 5. Click Hide. DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo said in an email to CNET that the image filter relies on open-source blocklists from uBlockOrigin and uBlacklist Huge AI Blocklist. CNET's Katelyn Chedraoui covers AI, like chatbots and image generators, and she thinks tools like this are a great way to give people more control over their search experiences. However, she said these tools aren't perfect. "AI images are impossible to escape online," Chedraoui said. "There's no silver bullet for weeding out AI." DuckDuckGo conceded in its email to CNET that this filter won't stop every AI-generated image result. But the company said that the filter "will greatly reduce the number of AI-generated images you see." The company said it plans on adding more filters in the future. For more on DuckDuckGo, here's what to know about the privacy-focused search engine, five reasons why you should use it and what to know about its VPN service.
NZ Herald
22-07-2025
- NZ Herald
Try these hidden ‘nope' buttons to stop AI content
When Google started to spit out AI-generated summaries at the top of many search results last year, the company also gave you a (well-hidden) option to see only plain vanilla website links and text instead. This 'Web' filter is a flashback to how Google search worked many years ago – if you can ever find it. Ernie Smith, editor of the Tedium newsletter about technology and obscurities, figured out a cheat code that shows you the no-AI Google search results without fumbling around in Google's tabs or settings with every search. You might still get text advertisements under 'sponsored'. Mostly, though, you'll see Google's suggested web links without AI summaries or other doodads crammed into search results like product images that are ads in disguise. You can hop back to the AI-and-other search results by hitting the 'All' option that's just under the search terms. You have at least two relatively simple ways to get AI-free Google search results: 1) Type your search into the website that Smith created, named after the cheat code. This takes you straight to Google's website-only search results that are tricky to find otherwise. Bookmark the website and use it for some or all of your Google searches. This does send information on what you're searching to Smith, who says it's not being collected or saved. 2) With certain web browsers, you can change your settings to make the no-AI search results the standard every time. Smith has instructions or check out the One Tiny Win section below. Smith cautioned that these tricks may work inconsistently or stop working at some point. Other tips you can find online to exclude AI summaries from your Google searches, include adding '-AI' or sprinkling curse words into your search terms. Smith said those tricks aren't really effective. Smith uses Google a lot for work and found the AI 'overviews', as Google calls its AI-generated summaries of relevant websites, unwelcome and unhelpful. 'In a lot of ways this is a very basic hack,' Smith said, 'to solve a problem that Google created for its users.' A Google spokesman said in the company's testing, people find their search results more useful with features like the AI overviews. The company also says a small fraction of people shift from the standard search results with AI summaries to the web-only option. You might find it handy to have AI-generated summaries in your Google search results. I sometimes do. Smith's hack puts the choice in your hands rather than Google's. Stop AI in DuckDuckGo image and web searches Last week, the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo gave you a new power to filter out AI-generated material from image searches. This is a big deal because people have complained about searches in Google Images, Pinterest and other visual sites churning up slop and AI knockoffs. (Pinterest said it's experimenting with options to see fewer AI-modified images.) In DuckDuckGo's settings you can make it standard to hide AI images in searches, or pick that option in each image search. DuckDuckGo says this feature uses available online lists of AI material that won't catch all AI-generated images. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo also lets you easily and permanently turn off AI-generated summaries in your search results. (From DuckDuckGo's settings, choose 'never' for what it calls AI Assist. You can also hide DuckDuckGo's chatbot.) Gisele Navarro, managing editor of product-review website HouseFresh and an astute observer of web trends, said it's refreshing that DuckDuckGo gives users the freedom to stop AI material. 'As a user, I feel listened to and allowed to make my choice,' Navarro said. 'As a web publisher, I feel my human content is being appreciated and given the chance to be found. One tiny win These instructions are for Chrome, the most popular web browser and the standard for Android phones. With these changes to your settings, Google or DuckDuckGo web search results should automatically exclude AI material. The DuckDuckGo one is essentially the nope-to-AI nuclear option, hiding all AI search features from your face entirely. None of these options work if you're using the Safari browser for Mac or iPhones. For Google search: In Chrome's web browser for a computer, click the three dots in the top right corner. • Settings > Search engine > Manage search engines and site search > scroll down to 'Site search' and choose 'Add'. • You can make the 'name' and 'shortcut' fields anything you like. Example: Name: AINOPE Shortcut: Gminus URL: Then click 'Add'. • You should see that option show up now under Site search. Click the three dots on the right and choose 'Make default'. - - - For DuckDuckGo search: In Chrome's web browser for a computer, click the three dots in the top right corner. • Settings > Search engine > Manage search engines and site search > scroll down to 'Site search' and choose 'Add'. • You can make the 'name' and 'shortcut' fields anything you like. Example: Name: AINOPE Shortcut: Dminus URL: Then click 'Add' • You should see that option show up now under Site search. Click the three dots on the right and choose 'Make default'.
Gizmodo
22-07-2025
- Gizmodo
DuckDuckGo Is Hoping to Win Over AI-Hating Searchers
Are you tired of AI-generated images cluttering your search results? Lucky for you, there's a way out of the slop, and it starts with forgetting about Google. DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine and web browser, recently rolled out a new feature that allows users to hide images made with AI from their search results. You can try it yourself right now by running a search on the DuckDuckGo search engine and going to the images tab. You'll now see a new drop-down menu option titled 'AI Images' that can be toggled to hide or show AI images. 'Our goal is to help you find what you're looking for. You should decide for yourself how much AI you want in your life – or if you want any at all,' the company said in an announcement posted on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). The company's filter uses open-source blocklists to screen out the AI-generated images. Although it won't catch everything, it should significantly cut down the number of AI images in search results. The news comes as AI slop has been proliferating at an exponential rate. And while it's, at the very least, an eyesore, the bigger concern is how convincingly real these images are becoming. There has even been debate whether AI images should be watermarked by default to make them easier to spot. But, some argue that if the watermarks are easy to remove, they could backfire and give some AI-generated images a false sense of authenticity. Android Authority reported last week that OpenAI is already testing a watermark feature for images generated in the beta version of ChatGPT's Android app. Additionally, the site speculates that the ability to save images without a watermark might be granted to paid users. However, since the feature hasn't been officially announced, its final form, or whether it launches at all, could still change. DuckDuckGo launched in 2008 and now offers web browsers on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Its browsers come full with several privacy features, including blocking third-party trackers, stopping targeted ads (even on YouTube), and it doesn't track searches. The company says it makes money from private ads on its search engine. Although the company puts an emphasis on online privacy, it is not necessarily anti-AI. In its announcement of its AI image filter, the company said its philosophy for AI features is that they should be 'private, useful, and optional.' The company already offers several AI features, including which lets users access custom versions of popular models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral, while keeping their conversations anonymous and untracked. In fact, the company announced today that users can now customize how those models respond, adjusting tone, length, and even what 'role' the model takes when replying.
