StartPage offers the following features:

• Privacy | Anonymous searching

  With StartPage you can search anonymously. We don’t follow you and never build a profile on you:

  • We don’t store your search information.
  • We don’t store your IP address.
  • We don’t use User ID cookies.
  • We never share personal information with third parties.
  • Facebook and Twitter without any spying.

• SSL | Always a secure connection

  Our servers make a secure, encrypted connection with your browser using the SSL/TLS encryption protocol. This encrypted connection makes sure your search queries can't be intercepted.

  StartPage has earned the highest SSL rating: an A+.

• Proxy | So you can surf the web invisibly

  Normally, when you click a search result, you leave the secure StartPage environment and visit a third-party website, which can see your IP address, track your movements, and put cookies on your browser. When you click “Proxy” next to a StartPage search result, we will retrieve the website for you and display it on our servers. The website never knows you saw it. Using the proxy is a little slower, but it's worth it to remain completely invisible. Click here for more information.

• Highlight | Find search terms more easily

  Click “Highlight” next to a search result and StartPage will highlight every place the search term appears, making it fast and easy to get to the information you're looking for.

• Settings URL | Cookie-free searching

  Cookies are little data files stored on your hard drive. Many websites use tracking cookies with a unique ID number to follow you around the Internet. In Europe, websites are required to ask for permission to use cookies, but if you deny the request, many websites won't let you in. After all, without cookies they can't make money off of you.

  StartPage never uses this kind of tracking cookie. We do allow you to set your user preferences with us (language, font size, etc.) and store them with one innocent cookie. The settings cookie does not remember anything about you, except the settings you have selected during your visit. Even if you've set your browser to reject all cookies, you can still save your StartPage settings through our unique “URL generator.” Customize StartPage to your taste, bookmark this URL, and you can visit your customized search engine – without being tracked.

• Maps | View Google Maps in privacy

  When you search for a place name with StartPage, we retrieve a Google Map and show it to you anonymously. As always, we don't store or share your IP address, log your visit, or track you with cookies. Our private Google map lets you zoom in and out. However, the JavaScript scroll-and-drag feature is turned off to protect your privacy.

• POST vs. GET | Prevent your search terms from being shared with third parties

  It's rather technical, but StartPage uses something called a POST instead of GET command, which prevents a common privacy problem: webmasters seeing what you’ve searched for when you land on their website. Your search terms can contain private and sensitive information. With the POST method, we make sure your search terms are never shared with third parties.

  Because of this privacy feature, when you click through to a website and then try to return to your StartPage search results, you may see an error message such as “the webpage has expired.” To record or share your searches, you can use the “Bookmark this search” link at the top right of the search result page. Or you can simply disable “POST vs GET” on the Settings page.

• Facebook and Twitter | Use social media without spying

  Those little Facebook and Twitter icons you see everywhere are actually little spies. Simply visiting a page where these icons appear ensures that your visit to that page will be shared with Facebook and Twitter. That’s why we've invented a unique two-step process that gives you access to Facebook and Twitter without your privacy being violated.

• More...

  Learn more about our features and find the answers to your questions through our Support Center.

• Start using StartPage!