A filter bubble is when the results of doing an Internet search are targeted to you–your likes, your age, your location, your click history, and other aggregated information–meaning that you don’t see objective results when you search. It also means that advertiser links can be targeted more closely to what you might purchase. For an interesting look at filter bubbles, check out this information page at https://duckduckgo.com/?kad=en_US. The comments at the bottom of the page are very enlightening.
But is your information private when you search using DuckDuckGo? Maybe. You can read more about Web privacy and the NSA at Duck Duck Go: Illusion of Privacy and CNN’s How the U.S. forces Net firms to cooperate on surveillance.
For a more in-depth look at how Google personalizes your searches, read Personalized Search for Everyone and look at your Google Web History here [you must be signed in to a Google account to view this page]. You can turn off search history personalization by following instructions here.
To see who’s tracking you as you surf the Web, install a Firefox add-on called Collusion; it’s eye-opening!
For more reading on the NSA and privacy, read Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram Newsletter; always fascinating!
Intentional Privacy 