Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT have taken the world by storm since their introduction a couple of years ago. While many people are enthusiastic about them, others are a bit more wary, especially around privacy. To protect their privacy, some users have run models locally, but this can be resource-intense and out of the question for many people.
For those of us without a killer computer (no pun intended), options remain limited to using AI hosted by firms like OpenAI and Google. An issue with these is that they're not private; companies can see what you're saying and, in some cases, even use what you've said to train their models unless you opt-out. Sure, they will try to anonymize messages with personal data, but it's still not great in many people's minds.
If you're limited to using hosted models and want some privacy, then a good option to take a look at is Duck.ai from DuckDuckGo. I have taken a look over their privacy policy and will sum up what it has to say. Duck.ai gives you access to GPT-4o mini, Llama 3.3 70B, Claude 3 Haiku, o3-mini, and Mistral 8x7B. Unfortunately, these models do not have internet access, but even with this limitation, they can still be very useful.
To get started, you can head over to Duck.ai. You cannot log in to this service. All recent chats are stored locally in your browser. When you head over there for the first time, you get an overview of the features and are invited to accept the privacy policy.
According to the privacy policy, the chats are stored locally on your device instead of on remote servers. In the settings, there is an option to turn recent chats off altogether and delete existing conversations. If you opt to keep your chat history on, the device will automatically delete your chats once you reach the 30 limit.
DuckDuckGo also removes any metadata that could contain personal data (such as your IP address) before sending it off to the model provider, giving you more privacy. It said that the personal information you provide in the inputs could be mentioned in outputs, but this isn't traceable back to you because the sender is anonymized.
The privacy company said that it has agreements with model providers to ensure your private information is not exposed to them. Its privacy policy also states that your anonymous data is not used to train models you interact with, and it is deleted when it is no longer needed, always within 30 days.
The policy does state there are limits to using the service, such as not using it for illegal activities. DuckDuckGo says flagrant violators could be blocked from using the service. The minimum age to use the service is 13 years old, but there is effectively no way for it to stop younger people from using the service as there is no signup mechanism.
The company also said there is a daily limit to the number of messages you can send but doesn't state a hard limit for any of the models.
If you're fascinated by this service and want to install it on your phone, you can use your browser's add-to-home or install features. In my own testing with Chrome on Android, Duck.ai installs as a web app, meaning it shows up in my app drawer like an installed program.
If you use the DuckDuckGo search engine, you can also access this feature by looking for the chat button.
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