So when we have map results, for example, people can choose what provider they want to do their directions when they go off of DuckDuckGo onto a directions provider. Wikipedia also saw lower amounts of their articles being looked at. One, is people stopped searching terrorism-related terms, because presumably, they feel that they might have been investigated if they searched, so the terms like “al-Qaeda” and stuff like that went down.

There’s all sorts of good examples of this. Chilling effect is a big one, which is people change their behavior once they feel that they’re being watched or they don’t have privacy. I think if you start invading privacy in that way, it leads to all sorts of bad effects. But we consistently see this growing percentage of people trying to take at least actual action None of the main factors that we get on the general survey stuff spiked.

It’s not education, it’s not income, it’s not age, it’s not political affiliation. So the thought is, at least they’re interrelated in the sense that people are just in their own bubbles and they’re not really seeing these opposing viewpoints. I think the danger that I see coming, and the correlation causation piece is hard here, but polarization has just increased, at least in the US, and it’s relatively correlated with all of this social media and tracking. Here are a few highlights from our conversation: We also geek out on mental models and how Gabriel uses them company wide to empower his employees to slow down, choose the right mental tool, and make better decisions. In this discussion, Gabriel explains why companies that track and sell your data have gone too far, why protecting consumer privacy is so important and what you can do to minimize your digital footprint. Gabriel also became a voracious student of mental models through his discovery of Charlie Munger (just like me.) He recently wrote a book called Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models, an illustrated guide to the models that can have the biggest impact on our thinking. As a more secure alternative to Google, he started DuckDuckGo, a search engine without tracking that lets you decide how much of your data is shared. Since 2008, Gabriel has devoted his time and energy to protecting consumer privacy from the rampant data farming that is so prevalent online today. Today I welcome Gabriel Weinberg ( to The Knowledge Project. Now available on: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Transcript DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg talks data privacy, protecting yourself online and shares his favorite mental models for clearer thinking.

Gabriel weinberg wife