[lucian1900]

Much of DDG's privacy stems from not having any user data to store in the first place. While that can be circumvented to some extent, it's hard to do so without outwardly visible consequences.

[AlexMax]

What exactly is preventing the government from ordering DDG to store queries and the IP addresses that make them?

[lucian1900]

Nothing, but an IP address is not equivalent to a user. The accuracy of the tracking would be quite poor.