Meet DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro: a 3-in-1 subscription service with VPN, Personal Information Removal, and Identity Theft Restoration

Privacy Pro bundles three new protections from DuckDuckGo into one easy subscription. Subscribers get:

• An anonymous VPN built for speed, security, and simplicity. Secure your connection anytime, anywhere, on up to five devices simultaneously.
• Personal Information Removal, which finds and removes personal details – like your name and home address – from data broker sites that store and sell them, helping to combat identity theft and spam.
• Identity Theft Restoration. If your identity is stolen, a dedicated advisor will help restore stolen accounts, assist in recovering resulting financial losses, and help correct your credit report.

Getting these services separately from other companies could cost upwards of $30/month; our users can subscribe to Privacy Pro for $9.99/month or $99.99/year. Privacy Pro is currently only available to United States residents, but we plan on expanding to other regions in the future. Sign up at duckduckgo.com/pro and make sure you're using the most up-to-date version of the DuckDuckGo browser on all your devices.

What is Privacy Pro?

Every day, tens of millions of people rely on DuckDuckGo to add a layer of privacy to their online activities. The centerpiece of our product offering is now the DuckDuckGo browser, which offers the most comprehensive set of free privacy protections by default. (One immediate benefit? Fewer ads and popups than you’d see on other browsers.) Our browser bundles our private search engine, tracker blocking, Email Protection, and more than a dozen other free privacy features in one convenient package.  However, there’s only so much protection we can provide for free. For example, some protections, like securing our users’ network connections with a VPN, require significantly more bandwidth and other resources.

Enter Privacy Pro: a three-in-one subscription service that offers even more seamless privacy protection. Privacy Pro subscribers get a fast, secure, and easy-to-use VPN that doesn’t log your activity; Personal Information Removal, which helps remove your information from “people search” data broker sites that store and sell it; and Identity Theft Restoration, which helps to fix credit report mistakes and recover any resulting financial losses. (Please note: Setting up and managing Personal Information Removal requires a Mac or Windows computer.)

On its own, the DuckDuckGo browser lets you search and browse privately. By adding Privacy Pro, you can also limit data brokers’ access to your personal information and secure your Internet connection across your whole device, which hides your location and device IP address from sites you visit — all in one place.

Adding a Privacy Pro subscription makes the DuckDuckGo browser's best-in-class protections even stronger.

More protections, same privacy promise.

At DuckDuckGo, we don’t track you; that’s our privacy policy in a nutshell, and this new subscription service is no exception. Guided by the principle of data minimization, we designed Privacy Pro to maximize your privacy:

• We don’t keep logs of your VPN activity. This means we have no way to tie what you do while connected to the DuckDuckGo VPN to you as an individual — or to anything else you do on DuckDuckGo, like searching.
• Personal Information Removal is the first service of its kind that works directly from your device to keep your sensitive information safe. The details you provide during setup are stored on your device, not on remote servers, and removal requests are initiated directly from that device.
• Unlike other data removal services, which take a more scattershot approach, Personal Information Removal only starts opt-out processes with data brokers once we’ve confirmed that they have you in their databases.  
• Unless you become a victim of identity theft and need help, you don’t need to provide any information for Identity Theft Restoration. It’s waiting for you when you need it.
• Payment information is securely handled by Stripe, Google Play, or the Apple App Store, depending on how you sign up. We do not hold or process any of your payment information ourselves.
• Instead of a traditional account, we assign you a random ID when you sign up for Privacy Pro. We have no way to connect this random ID back to your payment information.

We’re here to seamlessly protect your privacy — not compromise it.

Read the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for Privacy Pro.

VPN

Our non-logging VPN secures your Internet connection on up to five devices at once.

Get an extra layer of online protection with the VPN made for speed, security, and simplicity — built and operated by DuckDuckGo, not an outside provider. Our VPN encrypts your Internet connection for all your browsers and apps across your entire device, hiding your location and IP address from the sites you visit. Because connections are encrypted, your Internet service provider (ISP) can’t see your online traffic either. And we have a strict no-logging policy; we don’t log or store data that can connect you to your online activity, or to any other DuckDuckGo services, such as search.

No need to install a separate VPN app. Once you sign up for Privacy Pro, you can install our VPN right in your DuckDuckGo browser. After that, you can secure your connection in just one click and check its status at a glance. It offers full-device coverage on up to five devices at once.

Our VPN is simple to use. If your VPN connection gets interrupted for any reason, it attempts to reconnect automatically and prevents data leaks until the reconnection is successful. And it works perfectly with DuckDuckGo’s other protections; if you’re an Android user, you should know our VPN is the only one compatible with App Tracking Protection.

We currently have VPN servers across the US, Europe, and Canada, and we’ll be adding more over time. To maximize speed and stability, you’ll connect to the closest available VPN server by default, but you can manually choose whichever location you prefer.

To encrypt your traffic and route it through a VPN server, we use the open-source WireGuard protocol, which is fast and secure. We also route your DNS queries automatically through the VPN connection to our own DNS resolvers, which further hides your browsing history from your ISP.

Learn more about the VPN on our Help Pages.

Personal Information Removal

Personal Information Removal helps get your name, address, and more off of people search sites.

Ever tried looking yourself up online? Where our other web tracking protections help defend against trackers that gather your personal information while you browse, Personal Information Removal goes one step further: It works to actually remove personal information, such as your name and home address, from people search sites that store and sell it, helping to combat identity theft and spam.

How does it work? People search sites, like Spokeo and Verecor, are a common type of data broker. They collect your personal information from local and federal records, public forums like social media, and even other data brokers, and make it available online. (You’ve probably seen them in search results when you look up your name.) We scan dozens of these sites for your info and, if found, request its removal, even handling back-and-forth confirmation emails for you automatically behind the scenes. Unlike other similar services, we only contact the data brokers once we confirm that you’re in their databases, and the info you enter for scanning is stored on your device — not on remote servers.

To help us build Personal Information Removal from the ground up while maintaining our strict privacy standards, DuckDuckGo acquired data removal service Removaly in 2022. Removaly was a pioneer in the data removal space, developing a way to navigate data brokers’ confusing opt-out process automatically without compromising users’ privacy in the process.

Personal Information Removal re-scans sites regularly to minimize the risk of your info reappearing, using the data stored on your device. Your device also initiates any removal requests. You can keep tabs on the progress of ongoing removals — and see the personal information we’ve already removed! — on your personal dashboard within the DuckDuckGo browser. Once it’s set up, simply select Personal Information Removal from the browser’s three-dot menu in the upper right.

You'll need to set up Personal Information Removal on one primary Mac or Windows computer. Right now, the dashboard can only be accessed from that device, but we are planning to add the ability to view it from your other devices.

Learn more about Personal Information Removal on our Help Pages.

Identity Theft Restoration

Get some peace of mind: if your identity is ever compromised, Identity Theft Restoration is standing by to help.

With more than 1 million cases a year reported in the U.S., identity theft is more common than you might think. And Personal Information Removal helps reduce the chance of identity theft, but unfortunately, nothing can totally prevent it. So, let us give you some peace of mind: If your identity is stolen or compromised, Identity Theft Restoration will help you handle the stress and expense.

Identity Theft Restoration is brought to our users in partnership with Iris® Powered by Generali, one of the oldest firms specializing in identity theft in the U.S. Iris’ identity theft advisors are available 24/7, every day of the year, and answer calls within 11 seconds on average. This responsiveness has earned them 18 customer service awards over the last 10 years.

If your identity is stolen, Iris will collect some details about your situation in order to provide assistance; no personal information is shared between Iris and DuckDuckGo. Once a case is established, Iris has several ways to help get you back on track:

• Repairing your credit after fraudulent activity: Iris can help freeze your credit report until your identity is restored and help fix any errors that result from fraudulent activity. They’ll also work with your financial institutions to help reverse any fraudulent transactions.  
  
• Document replacement: Iris can help you cancel and replace your driver’s license, bank cards, passport, and social security card.
  
• Travel assistance: If you’re 100+ miles from home, Iris can provide a cash advance of up to $500 to assist with emergency travel. If you’re abroad when your identity is stolen, they can help you report fraudulent activity to police and legal authorities.
  
• Untangling fraudulent medical claims: Iris can help inform your healthcare and insurance providers of any fraudulent claims, as well as ensuring medical records are corrected — with help from their in-house medical staff if needed.
  
• Covering out-of-pocket costs: In some cases, Iris reimburses certain out-of-pocket expenses associated with identity theft restoration. The reimbursement benefit is underwritten by an authorized insurance company under insurance policies issued to Iris. Please review the Summary of Benefits to understand the full coverage terms, conditions, and exclusions.

Learn more about Identity Theft Restoration in our Help Pages.

Getting started and managing your subscription.

Ready to give Privacy Pro a try? Make sure you’ve got the latest version of the DuckDuckGo browser (iOS / Android / macOS / Windows) and head to duckduckgo.com/pro.

Privacy Pro is available for $9.99/month or $99.99/year; your subscription will auto-renew monthly or annually, depending on the payment terms selected, until canceled. If you subscribed via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you can manage your subscription and payment methods there. If you subscribed via our website, you’ll manage your account from the DuckDuckGo browser’s Settings instead.