DuckDuckGo's new iPhone feature is a privacy win - I recommend getting it now
DuckDuckGo's iOS app now includes a Copy Clean Link feature that removes tracking parameters from URLs when copied. The feature helps users share links without exposing tracking identifiers, though it does not affect cookies or other trackers once the link is opened. The update was released in late July and is currently only available on iPhone.
- ▪The new Copy Clean Link feature automatically strips away all query parameters after the question mark in a URL.
- ▪When a link is copied in the DuckDuckGo app, only the cleaned URL is placed on the iPhone clipboard, preventing the sharing of tracking identifiers.
- ▪The feature does not block cookies or other types of trackers that may be activated when the link is opened in a browser.
- ▪The update was listed in the App Store at the end of July, and DuckDuckGo has not responded to requests for comment.
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Story provenance
Source · retrieval · rights · ranking — open for full record
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Story provenance
Attribution is not the same as permission. This drawer separates discovery metadata, excerpts, WeSearch-generated summaries, reuse status, and whether the publisher receives the visit. Nothing here claims a legal grant the publisher has not made.
Record
| Original publisher | ZDNet |
| Canonical URL | https://www.zdnet.com/article/duckduckgo-is-adding-a-feature-for-iphone-that-everyone-should-have/ |
| Publication time | Thu, 06 Aug 2026 02:00:43 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-06T02:05:42.563Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-06T02:05:42.563Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | npiAvYNQWBWG · 1 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Tech Home Tech Security DuckDuckGo's new iPhone feature is a privacy win - I recommend getting it now The iPhone version of the DuckDuckGo app has a new feature that makes sharing links easier and safer. Written by Jack Wallen, Contributing WriterContributing Writer Aug. 5, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. PT Jack Wallen/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET's key takeawaysDuckDuckGo for iOS has a new privacy feature.Copy Clean Link prevents tracking information from being copied.You can share links knowing they are clean.A new feature from DuckDuckGo's iOS app automatically strips away unnecessary tracking identifiers and other parameters that could lead to fingerprinting and other unwanted issues, according to a report from Digital Trends, Tuesday.For reference, what…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at ZDNet.