It's legit. A fantastic search engine from folks concerned with security, privacy, and the increasingly pervasive tracking of our every move by corporate shitweasels. Oh, and the gubblement too, of course.
The only caveat: it is a DIFFERENT search engine entirely, not a filter for google. So your results will be different. If you are looking for something and can't find it using duckduckgo, try google afterwards. In fact, if you do a lot of online research, 'tis always a good idea to have a few different search engines bookmarked.