DuckDuckGo just donated $25,000 to The Tor Project’s services focused on protecting user privacy.

It’s a natural fit for the Paoli-based DuckDuckGo, a search engine that doesn’t track its users the way Google does. DuckDuckGo actually uses Tor.

Both organizations are part of Philadelphia’s growing internet privacy community.

(The Tor Project has Philly roots. One of its founders, Roger Dingledine, lived in Philadelphia and taught at Drexel, while its communications director, Kate Krauss, lives in West Philadelphia and is a longtime local activist.)

“These projects were chosen by DuckDuckGo community and staff because they directly align with our vision of raising the standard of trust online,” DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg said in a video announcing the donations. Watch it here.

Since DuckDuckGo’s early days, Weinberg and the company have donated to open source projects, acting on suggestions from its community. Last year, the company donated $25,000 to Girl Develop It’s Summer of Open Source Fellowship, which was founded in Philadelphia.

This year, DuckDuckGo donated $225,000 to nine projects — its biggest open source donation to date.


“We chose [these projects] specifically because we think that even our modest donations will make a big impact,” Weinberg said.

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