This new and improved guide aims to be the most in-depth resource available on private search engines. We’ll examine the best private search engines for 2020, how to keep your data safe when searching, and also some search engines to avoid.
Search engines may help you find what you’re looking for, but it often comes at a price: your privacy.
Most of the big search engines today are essentially data collection tools for advertising companies. Collecting your private data helps these companies to make money with targeted ads, which is a booming industry. Unless you are using a private search engine, your data is ending up in the hands of third parties and you are the product.
Here is the information being collected by some of the larger (not private) search engines:
- Source IP address
- User agent
- Location
- Unique identifier (stored in browser cookies)
- Search queries
Using a search engine can disclose highly personal information about you, such as medical issues, employment status, financial information, political beliefs, and other private details. This data, of course, can be collected, stored, and linked to your data profile (and real identity). The only way to effectively “opt out” is to keep your data safe and out of the hands of the data collectors.
In this new and improved guide, we’re going to take a deep dive into the world of private search engines, while also covering some FAQs and best practices for keeping your data safe and private. Table of contents:
- Best private search engines for 2020
- “Private” search engines with ad-tech owners
- How do private search engines make money?
- Are US-based search engines safe?
- How to keep your searches private
- Considerations when choosing a private search engine
All recommendations in this guide are my own opinions based on extensive testing and research.
Best private search engines
Finding the best private search engine for your unique needs is a subjective process and there’s no one-size-fits-all. You have many factors to consider. Ideally, a search engine would return great results while also respecting your privacy. Unfortunately, there is often a tradeoff here, so it really comes down to the user and what you determine works best for your situation.
Any of the private search engines in this guide may be the best fit for your needs. You can test them all to see which one is the best fit.
Metasearch vs search: Most of the private search engines discussed below are technically metasearch engines, because they pull search results from other search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yandex. The one exception to this is Mojeek, which is a true crawler-based search engine with its own index (discussed below). There are also a few search engines that fall in the middle by deploying their own crawler, but also pulling results from other search engines.
Note: This list is not necessarily in rank order. Choose the best search engine for you based on your own threat model and unique needs.
Here are the best private search engines:
1. MetaGer – Open source metasearch engine, great features
MetaGer is an open source metasearch engine based in Germany, which gets search results from Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and others, as well as having its own web crawler. It is an interesting project, which started in 1996, and is now operated by a non-profit foundation in Germany called SUMA-EV (Association for Free Access to Knowledge). I tested out MetaGer for this guide and found the results to be good, with some nice features as well:
- Every search result shows the source it came from
- Search filter options (date, safe search, and language)
- Proxy viewing options “open anonymously”
MetaGer also does well in terms of privacy, as they explain here. Similar to Startpage, MetaGer converts search requests into anonymous queries through a proxy server, which also provides the anonymous viewing option with all results. User IP addresses are truncated for privacy, although user agent info is passed along to their search partners. MetaGer does not utilize cookies or any other tracking methods.
For operation stability and security, MetaGer does keep some logs on their own servers (in Germany), but this data is kept no longer than 96 hours and is automatically erased. MetaGer finances operations from user donations, as well as ads that are served through partner networks, such as Bing, which appear at the top of results. If you purchase a membership, however, you can get completely ad-free search results. (Without memberships and personal donations, MetaGer states they would not be able to continue operations.)
MetaGer runs all of its infrastructure on servers in Germany, which is a good privacy jurisdiction with strict data protection laws. Like Searx, MetaGer is completely open source. For those on the Tor network, MetaGer also hosts a .onion site. You can read more about using MetaGer, as well as their apps, plugins, and features, on their website. We’ll close here with an interesting quote I found on their site (translated from German):
Did you know that according to the Patriot Act, all internet servers and search engines physically located in the jurisdiction of the United States are obligated to disclose any information to the intelligence services? Your personal data is at risk even if the servers and search engines don’t store any information: it is sufficient if the intelligence agencies read and store everything at the internet point of connection. All MetaGer servers are located in Germany.
Jurisdiction: Germany
https://metager.org/ (English)
https://metager.de/ (German)
2. Swisscows – Switzerland-based private search engine with zero tracking
Swisscows is a Switzerland-based private search engine that does very well with privacy and security. They promise no tracking or data collection, and even have a “Swiss Fort Knox” data center for their server infrastructure. From their website:
- have our own servers and do not work with cloud or third party!
- have our Datacenter in the Swiss Alps – THIS is the safest bunker in Europe!
- have positioned everything geographically outside of EU and US.
In terms of privacy, Swisscows is one of the top choices, arguably better than many other private search engines. From their privacy policy:
We do not collect any of our visitors’ personal information. None whatsoever. When using Swisscows neither your IP address is recorded nor is the browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) collected. No analyses are made, which operating system our users use (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.); your search are not recorded either. We record absolutely no data from our visitors. The only information we store is the number of search requests entered daily at Swisscows, to measure the total overall traffic on our website and to evaluate a breakdown of this traffic by language and mere overall statistics.
Swisscows completely does away with statistics and analyses on its visitors in order to protect your privacy. Given that we do not collect any information on our visitors, we are also not able to identify your place of residence. Swisscows does not conduct any geo targeting.
Swisscows does not use Cookies which can be used to identify of a user.
In testing out Swisscows for this guide, I found it to provide good results, which are primarily sourced from Bing.
Family-Friendly content – One unique aspect of Swisscows is that they are passionate about family-friendly content. As they explain on their about page:
- We promote moral values.
- We hate violence and pornography.
- We promote digital media education.
While some people may not like the fact that Swisscows filters some adult content, others may see this as a great feature, especially those with children.
Because Swisscows does not pass on user data from search requests, they are unable to effectively monetize their service through ad partners, which means they largely rely on donations and sponsorships to maintain operations (sponsors can get a banner ad at the top of results):
For the reason that Swisscows does NOT monitor users, thus doesn’t spy out data and NO data is sold to advertisers, only few companies are interested in advertising on Swisscows. This revenue unfortunately doesn’t cover the expenses on data center, development, employees, etc.
Jurisdiction: Switzerland
https://swisscows.com
3. Searx – Open source metasearch engine
Searx is an open source metasearch engine that gathers results from other search engines while also respecting user privacy. One unique feature of Searx is that you can run your own instance. The drawback with your own instance, however, is that your search results won’t be mixed with other users. Searx is open source and available on GitHub.
Another great aspect of Searx is that it is very customizable. You can modify exactly what search engines Searx pulls results from in the user preferences area. You can also narrow down results with different categories. It’s all under your control.
One drawback with Searx is that it’s been getting blocked by Google because it scrapes Google results. There does not seem to be a good solution to this issue at this time, other than using other sources for your search results.
SearX can still pull results from other search engines, however.
Be careful with public instances!
Because Searx is open source and freely available for anyone to use, there are a number of different public instances you can utilize. However, just like with Tor nodes, anyone could set up a “rogue” instance and potentially log user activity, as Searx explains here:
What are the consequences of using public instances?
If someone uses a public instance, he/she has to trust the administrator of that instance. This means that the user of the public instance does not know whether his/her requests are logged, aggregated and sent or sold to a third party.
This might mean that governments and other rogue third parties are operating instances, but that is pure speculation.
Jurisdiction: Not applicable (open source, not based in any one location)
https://www.searx.me (out of operation!)
Unfortunately, the people behind the Searx project do not have the resources to run a public instance. Instead, they recommend other public instances run by various individuals or entities. But how do you know they aren’t logging your search results on their server? (You don’t!)
One solution to this is to host your own private instance. For most people, however, this is not a practical solution.
4. Qwant – Private search engine based in France
Qwant is another private search engine that is based in France and primarily sources search results from Bing. Being based in Europe, the data privacy protections are much stricter, as compared to the United States, for example. Qwant promises to protect user privacy (no tracking) and keep people from getting stuck in the filter bubble. Here is an excerpt from Qwant’s privacy policy:
When you use Qwant as a search engine, we don’t put any cookie on your browser that may allow us or others to recognize you or to follow you everywhere on the Internet. We don’t use any tracking device (pixel, fingerprinting…). We don’t collect and we don’t store any history or your searches. When you search, your query is instantly anonymized by being dissociated from your IP address, in accordance with what the French data controller advises. Long story short, what you are doing with Qwant is part of your privacy and we don’t want to know.
Qwant also has good search filtering options, to filter results by different categories (web, news, social, images, videos, and shopping) as well as date filters. The Qwant homepage also includes news stories, trending people, events, and other interest stories. Qwant continues to grow, with over 10 million searches per day, and is one of the most popular websites in France (top 50).
Overall, Qwant is a good option for a private search engine, with many features in place to protect user privacy.
Jurisdiction: France
https://www.qwant.com/
5. DuckDuckGo – Private search engine based in the US
DuckDuckGo is a US-based search engine that was started by Gabriel Weinberg in 2008. It generates search results from over 400 sources including Wikipedia, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo. DuckDuckGo has a close partnership with Yahoo (owned by Verizon), which helps it to better filter search results.
In testing out DDG for this private search guide, I found it to work pretty well, with relevant search terms being displayed for most tests. Search results for DuckDuckGo are primarily sourced from Bing.
To finance operations, DuckDuckGo generates money through advertisements and affiliates, which is explained here. Similar to Google and other search engines, DuckDuckGo will display ads at the top of your searches. DuckDuckGo has partnered with Amazon and eBay as affiliates.
Searches are saved – DuckDuckGo has a verbose privacy policy that mainly discusses other search engines. It’s only when you get toward the bottom that you learn DDG is saving all your search queries:
We also save searches, but again, not in a personally identifiable way, as we do not store IP addresses or unique User agent strings.
Why is DuckDuckGo saving your search queries?
The privacy policy states, “We use aggregate, non-personal search data to improve things like misspellings.”
History – In researching the background DuckDuckGo, I uncovered some interesting history. The founder of DDG, Gabriel Weinberg, was also behind a social network called Names Database, which collected the real names and addresses of its users. He then sold Names Database (and all the user data) to Classmates.com for “approximately $10 million in cash” in March 2006.
DuckDuckGo was launched a few years later, in 2008 and was branded as a privacy search engine. It rose to popularity in 2013 following the Snowden revelations. DuckDuckGo remains one of the most popular private search engines to date and is well-regarded in the privacy community.
Jurisdiction: United States (and runs on Amazon servers in the US!)
https://duckduckgo.com
6. Mojeek – A true crawler-based search engine with more privacy
Unlike some of the other private (meta)search engines on this page, Mojeek is true search engine with its own crawler. In an open reddit discussion, Mojeek claimed to have indexed 2.3 billion pages, with the goal of doubling that by the end of the year.
For those who want complete search independence from the corporate data monoliths of Google and Bing, Mojeek offers an interesting proposition. When I tested out various search terms, the results were hit and miss. Mojeek staff informed me they will continue to fine tun the search algorithm to improve results.
In terms of privacy, Mojeek does pretty well. It claims to be the “first ever no tracking/privacy orientated search engine” from when it first started. The Mojeek privacy policy details how user data is generally protected:
Mojeek doesn’t implement any kind of specific user tracking, whether that be at the time of visit or subsequently via standard logs, which Mojeek does keep. These logs contain the time of visit, page requested, possibly referral data, and browser information. IP addresses are not recorded (except in rare circumstances[1]), instead the IP address is replaced with a simple two letter code indicating the visitors country of origin. By doing this, Mojeek removes any possibility of tracking or identifying any particular user.
[1] Mojeek does make one exception to this rule, if a search query is deemed related to illegal and unethical practices relating to minors, then the full log including visiting IP address will be kept and gladly handed over to any official authorities that ask. If you’re at all concerned about this exception then Mojeek is not the search engine for you.
Mojeek staffed explained to me via email that this last section relating to illegal content is meant to act as a “deterrent” where they “reserve the right” to log IP addresses. Overall, not a bad privacy policy.
Hopefully Mojeek can continue to improve their search results and one day rival the big players.
Jurisdiction: United Kingdom
https://www.mojeek.com/
7. YaCy – Decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer search engine
YaCy is an interesting private search engine that distinguishes itself from others in that it runs on a peer-to-peer network (decentralized). It was created in 2004 by Michael Christen and is entirely open source. Here is a brief description from YaCy’s website:
It is fully decentralized, all users of the search engine network are equal, the network does not store user search requests and it is not possible for anyone to censor the content of the shared index. We want to achieve freedom of information through a free, distributed web search which is powered by the world’s users.
With YaCy, there is no central server, which could be seized or tapped by authorities. Rather, all peers in the network are equal and can be used for crawling or in “proxy mode” to index pages for other users. To use YaCy, you need to download the free software on your operating system, available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux (but there is a demo portal here).
Jurisdiction: Not applicable. (Being a decentralized and open-source platform, YaCy does not appear to fall under any particular jurisdiction, similar to Searx.)
https://yacy.net/
Other search engines worth mentioning…
Any of the private search engines above may be a good choice if you are looking for more privacy.
With that being said, there are other search engines on the market that offer varying degrees of privacy, tracking protection, and encryption.
Below are a few search engines that fall into the middle ground:
- They are better alternatives than using Google or Yahoo search; but
- They also don’t meet all the requirements to be featured as a full “private search engine” – for various reasons.
Since people may have questions about these search engines, we’ll take a close look at each option below.
The search engines below may be great choices depending on your threat model, needs, and preferences.
8. Givero – Search with more privacy, plus charitable donations
Another interesting search engine out of Europe (Denmark) is Givero. The basic philosophy behind Givero is to donate a share of gross profits to charities, which the user can specify. (Money is generated through ads, like most search engines.)
In terms of privacy, Givero has both pros and cons. For pros, Givero is based in Europe (with full GDPR privacy protections) and does not log search history or store profile data. By default, however, Givero does not offer the full protections of the private search engines above. This is clear from their privacy policy, where we read:
To display relevant search results and to prevent fraudulent activities, data is transferred to our search partners who only use it to provide better search results on Givero – read more below. [The partners are Bing and CodeFuel.]
The following data is transferred to our search partners when you submit a search request: IP address, user agent string, search term, country and language settings, filter settings for adult content, active search filter settings (e.g. page number information), an optional Bing ID (read more below) and the ID of the organization that should benefit from your search.
This is one drawback with metasearch engines that get their search results from other providers, in this case Bing. Some private search engines are able to work with search partners without compromising any data. Givero is not there yet. (Previously, the people behind Givero worked to create their own search engine called Findx, based on Gigablast, but could not make the project work for various reasons.)
Brian Rasmusson, co-founder of Givero, told Restore Privacy that Bing currently will not allow Givero to mask user IP addresses, but may consider doing this when monthly searches reach a certain threshold. However, Rasmusson also explained that Givero has successfully incorporated other privacy protections for its users:
What we have done is to make them [Bing] turn on their internal “privacy flag” that Bing operates with. This means that data from our users is not used for remarketing, and solely used for the Givero service (e.g. for fraud prevention). So that is always on, and cannot be changed on a user level unlike the Bing ID, which controls personalized results (the “filter bubble”).
Givero has also open sourced their Instant Answers (like DuckDuckGo) and their list of Search Bangs (unlike DuckDuckGo) on Github here.
Main drawbacks:
- Not a “private search engine” by default
- Bing ID is utilized (but can be disabled)
- User IP address passed on to Bing (use a good VPN)
Juridiction: Denmark
https://www.givero.com
9. Ecosia – The search engine that plants trees
Similar to Givero, Ecosia donates a portion of profits to charity. Unlike Givero, however, it is strictly focused on planting trees. Ecosia is based in Germany and it’s promoted as a private search engine. While Ecosia does offer more privacy than the big search engines, it is also lacking in a few areas.
First, Ecosia collects all search queries and then anonymizes this data after seven days. There’s also a fair amount of data collection through website analytics, including your IP address, browser agent, location, and more. Lastly, Ecosia is assigning a Bing tracking ID to every user:
Ecosia also assigns a “Bing Client ID” in order to improve the quality of the search results. This value is a user-specific ID which enables Bing to deliver more relevant search results also based on previous searches. The ID is saved in the Ecosia cookie and retrieved during future visits.
While the “Bing Client ID” can be manually disabled by the user, most people probably are not even aware of it. This is because Ecosia has done a good job burying this information in their privacy policy. To read the full privacy policy, you will need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and then click a light blue “READ MORE” button, which opens up more information.
Does Ecosia meet the criteria to be a “private search engine”? Probably not, but it’s still a good alternative to the big search engines, with commendable charity goals.
Main drawbacks:
- Not a “private search engine” by default
- Bing ID is assigned to users (but can be disabled)
- Search queries are saved for seven days
Jurisdiction: Germany
https://www.ecosia.org/
Search engines with ad-tech owners
Now we will examine a few search engines that are at least partially owned by advertising companies.
1. Search Encrypt – A search engine with some red flags
Search Encrypt is another interesting search engine that claims to offer better privacy by default than DuckDuckGo. Like DuckDuckGo, Search Encrypt uses Bing for search results. Search Encrypt describes the following features on its website:
- Expiring browsing history: Encryption keys for your searches expire when you are done searching.
- End-to-end encryption: Searches are end-to-end encrypted using AES-256 and HTTPS/SSL encryption.
- Privacy-friendly maps search
- Privacy-friendly video search
While Search Encrypt does have some interesting features, the privacy policy has a few red flags. It begins with:
Search Encrypt does not track search history in any user identifiable way.
This cryptic sentence suggests that Search Encrypt does indeed track search history, but attempts to anonymize the data. Their privacy policy further states:
Additionally, we store aggregated search data to improve product performance, but never store IP addresses or unique user identifiers in connection with such searches in order to ensure that none of the information collected in connection with your search activity is personally identifiable.
This is a pretty convoluted statement. Here are a few takeaways:
- “Aggregated search data” is being logged and stored.
- They claim to not store IP addresses “in connection with such searches” – but this does not mean that IP addresses are not getting logged and/or passed on to third parties. Rather, they are merely stating that IP addresses will not be associated with searches. Therefore it appears that IP addresses might be getting logged (another reason to use a VPN).
Search Encrypt also discloses in their privacy policy how they may share data with third parties if you alter the default settings in any way:
In circumstances where you have chosen to alter the default settings, then your personally identifiable information may be shared with third party site operators.
Lastly, it also appears that Search Encrypt may be operating out of the United States. From their Terms page:
Choice of Law and Venue.
This Agreement shall be interpreted and enforced in all respects under the laws of the State of Florida, United States as applicable to contracts to be performed entirely within Florida.
Who’s running the show?
Another question with Search Encrypt is that there isn’t much information about the company. The contact page shows an address in Cyprus and the legal venue is Florida (United States). The developer for the Search Encrypt Firefox extension is “SearchIncognito” – with a history of other “private search” extensions:
How does Search Encrypt make money?
Like some other private search engines, Search Encrypt makes money through affiliates, as they explain here:
In some circumstances, we may append an affiliate code to certain sites linked to our Search Encrypt product, either directly or through search results delivered to you. In doing so, we may collect a small commission in connection with your activity, but do not pass any of your personally identifiable information to any such third party sites.
This of course could be quite profitable with the right deals and enough users. DuckDuckGo also utilizes affiliates with Amazon and eBay for revenue, in addition to advertisements. (We’ll explain more about how private search engines make money below.)
I reached out to Search Encrypt asking for additional clarification on their data collection and user privacy policies. My emails were not answered.
Main drawbacks:
- IP address and other data may be collected
- Data may be shared with third parties if you modify default settings
- Runs on Amazon servers in the US
- Non-transparent company
Jurisdiction: Contact address is in Cyprus, legal venue is in the United States (owners in China? below)
https://www.searchencrypt.com/
Update: My suspicions proved to be warranted. An article on Medium has revealed that “Search Encrypt” is basically a Chinese data collection tool for advertising companies.
How a Chinese Company Built a $250 Million Search Hijacking Empire
2. Now GhostPeek emerges (Clone of Search Encrypt for 2020?)
It appears that a carbon copy of Search Encrypt has been unveiled, which they are calling “Ghost Peek” and claim to be another “private search engine”.
Someone on reddit did some digging and found the same pattern and ties to China that we saw above with “Search Encrypt”
Ghostpeek, the supposedly “private” search engine, is run by a sketchy shell corporation, which in turn is owned by a personal and mobile data aggregator based in China
3. Startpage – Acquired by US ad-tech company
Startpage was previously one of my top recommendations for private search engines. Unfortunately, news surfaced in October 2019 that Startpage was at least partially acquired by System1 and the Privacy One Group. As described in my article on Startpage and System1, there are some remaining concerns:
- The fact that System1 has acquired a large stake in Startpage.
- The history and business model of System1, which includes gathering “as much data as possible” and profiling users.
- The board of directors change at Surfboard Holding BV (parent company of Startpage), to appoint the System1 co-founder and an outside investor.
- The long delay in alerting the public to these changes.
- The contradictory business models of System1 and a private search engine.
Based on these latest developments, I am no longer recommending Startpage as a private search engine to my readers. That being said, it certainly not does not appear to be as alarming as the “Search Encrypt” situation above.
Jurisdiction: Netherlands (officially, but at least partially owned by a US company)
https://www.startpage.com
Private search engine FAQs
Below we will answer some FAQs (frequently asked questions) with regards to private search engines:
- How do private search engines make money?
- Are US-based search engines safe?
- How to keep your searches private
- Considerations when choosing a private search engine
How do private search engines make money?
Generally speaking, there are three ways private search engines make money: contextual advertisements, affiliates, and donations. Let’s examine each of these revenue streams on their own.
1. Contextual advertisements
Just like with Google and Bing, many private search engines make money by placing advertisements in the search results, usually based on the search terms you entered. Unlike with Google and Bing, however, private search engines should only be serving ads based on your search term, rather than from all other data collection sources (email, browsing, etc.).
With some private search engines, IP addresses or truncated (anonymized) IP addresses are passed off to the search partner, in order to serve relevant ads for your general location.
2. Affiliate revenue
Another way that private search engines make money is through affiliates. DuckDuckGo is an example of this, with both Amazon and eBay:
DuckDuckGo is part of the affiliate programs of the eCommerce websites Amazon and eBay. When you visit those sites through DuckDuckGo, including when using !bangs, and subsequently make a purchase, we receive a small commission.
You may also see “online shopping” options above your search results, which are another form of affiliate revenue. Both Qwant and DuckDuckGo utilize affiliate “shopping” results for revenue.
Side note: When you buy something through an affiliate link, it never increases the price you pay. Rather, it simply transfers a small percentage of the profits (i.e. a commission) to the affiliate, which in this case is the private search engine.
3. Donations
Private search engines may also make money from donations. Anybody can donate to the project, regardless of whether it is an individual developer, a non-profit organization, or a private for-profit business.
If a search engine does not have other sources of revenue or good advertising deals with partners, donations become very important to ensure continued operations. For example, Swisscows, MetaGer, and YaCy all have donation options.
Are US-based search engines safe?
Choosing a private search engine is all based on your unique needs and threat model. Therefore a private search engine that Bob considers to be safe, may not be adequate for Alice.
With regards to US-based search engines, and any other US businesses that handls (or has potential access) to private data, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- The United States has extensive surveillance programs, which are carried out by various branches of government, such as the NSA.
- The US has a long history of working with (and forcing) private tech companies to facilitate bulk data collection efforts – see the PRISM program for details. (This raises questions about private search engines that are being hosted on Amazon infrastructure, a large US-based company.)
- US companies could be served National Security Letters or other lawful data collection demands, while also being prohibited from disclosing this due to gag orders.
These laws and capabilities essentially give the US government the authority to compel a legitimate privacy-focused company into a data collection tool for state agencies.
If a privacy-focused business were to be compromised, it would likely happen behind closed doors, without a word (or warning) to the users. This was the case with Lavabit, and rather than comply with the data requests, the founder was basically forced to shut down the business.
As a general rule, Restore Privacy does not recommend services that are based in the US. Nonetheless, it all depends on your threat model and how much privacy and security you need.
How to keep your searches private
Here are five basic tips for keeping your searches (and data in general) more private.
1. Use a private search engine
Using one of the private search engines in this guide will help keep your data safe from third parties. Choosing the best search engine all comes down to your unique preferences, needs, and threat model.
2. Use a private and secure browser
Just like with search engines, your browser can also reveal lots of private information about you to third parties:
- Browsing history: all the websites you visit
- Login credentials: usernames and passwords
- Cookies and trackers: these are placed on your browser by the sites you visit
- Autofill information: names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.
- Metadata, which can be used for tracking and identification (browser fingerprinting)
See the secure browser guide for additional options, as well as the Firefox privacy guide for tweaks and modifications.
And speaking of browsers, many of the private search engines in this guide offer browser extensions to replace the default search engine for your browser.
3. Use a good VPN service
If you use a good VPN service, you won’t have to worry about search engines logging your IP address and location. A VPN will encrypt and anonymize your traffic, while also replacing your IP address and location with that of the VPN server you’re connected to. There are many other uses for VPN services and they are an important privacy tool, especially since internet providers in many countries are now collecting browsing history.
Finding the best VPN service can be challenging, but there are some great providers with good track records that are located in safe, privacy-friendly jurisdictions.
4. Use a good ad blocker
A reliable ad blocker is another important privacy tool since most advertisements pose a major threat to your privacy by quietly collecting data for third-party advertising networks. Generally speaking, ads are tracking and data collection tools. Ads can also be a security threat (see malvertising), so it’s best to simply block ads and tracking networks.
There are of course many other privacy tools to consider. However, a good private search engine, a secure browser, a reliable VPN, and a safe ad blocker are the top priorities for basic digital self defense.
5. Log out!
Lastly, it’s also good to stay logged out of your accounts (Gmail, YouTube, Yahoo, etc.) when surfing the web, since trackers will record your browsing activity and link this to your data profile.
Another option is to utilize a specific browser for staying logged into various accounts, but then use a separate browser for general browsing activity (browser compartmentalization).
Considerations when choosing a private search engine
Here are a few different considerations when looking for the best search engine for privacy:
- Search results – Some search engines may do well in the privacy category, but they don’t return very good results.
- Privacy – Consider what information the search engine is logging, as well as the data that may be passed off to third parties and search partners (such as Bing).
- Jurisdiction – Jurisdiction is an important factor to consider because it ultimately affects your data and privacy. Services based in the US, for example, are subject to the Patriot Act, National Security Letters, and may also be forced to collect user data without being allowed to disclose anything (due to gag orders).
- Features – Some private search engines offer useful features, such as anonymous viewing (via proxy servers), search result filtering options, plugins, extensions, and more.
- Trust – Trust is difficult to quantify and measure, but it’s a very important consideration. When considering the trust factor, you may want to look at the history of the company and the individuals behind it.
Finding the best search engine for your needs is a subjective process, and there’s no single “best private search engine” that applies to everyone. Test and research the different options to find the best fit for you.
Last updated on January 28, 2020.
Hi Sven
Just to let you and others know that privacytools.io is once again recommending startpage.com as a private search engine – with a warning.
Thinkprivacy.ch is also recommending startpage.com as a private search engine.
Yes, one of the Privacy Tools staff members (Dan Arel who runs ThinkPrivacy.ch) is now an employee of Startpage/System1 and gets paid to promote Startpage. I saw this on Github when another PTIO member flagged Dan for his “conflict of interest” – and now PTIO recommends Startpage again. So we’ve come full circle now with PrivacyTools.io member(s) on the System1 payroll.
Anon, I’ll agree it’s Simply Greed !
As the more webmasters to the web it has become – from their early rush to building the filter bubble’s as it’s absolutely driven by commercial interests to the return of your search queries. Early on it had become clearer and clearer that if you want to have lots of people use your website, you need to provide them with personally relevant information, and if you want to make the most money on ads, you need to provide them with personal interests relevant ads.
This had triggered a personal information gold rush, in which the major companies – Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, and the likes – started competing to create the most comprehensive portrait of each of us to drive personalized ads for products. There’s also a whole “behavior market” that opened up in which every action you take online – every mouse click, every form entry – can be sold as a commodity.
This I observed back in 2016 when I became privacy aware to what happened to the web in that time – – fast forwards to today and it’s still the worst for your privacy and comparable as like someone digging through your trash. Most people have found by running an Ad Block program / extension in employs with EasyList filtering lists that helps. Where it’s defined how it’s roll in purpose is to ‘acceptable first-party tracking’.
https://easylist.to/2011/08/31/what-is-acceptable-first-party-tracking.html
These two links are from that 2016 time and still carry value:
“Our online information is the raw resource of the digital age, yet mining it can be risky for the new industrial giants”
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/01/profits-perils-drilling-data-oil-surveillance-online-information]
“Google and Microsoft have made a pact to protect surveillance capitalism”
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/02/google-microsoft-pact-antitrust-surveillance-capitalism]
As it’s the same ole’ same !
Hi Sven,
About DuckDuckGo, I don’t think that you have mentioned in this article something about DuckDuckGo that I learned about this week,
and I would like to suggest you add this info to your DDG section:
In the last few days (while I’ve been learning about my current search engine options) I have run across many comments on privacy/security-conscious discussion forums where the commenters seem to have no idea about the following situation, and they seem to think that somehow they are protected when using DuckDuckGo as a search “middleman” to let them search a second site (though they are actually not protected).
When doing a search with DuckDuckGo’s “bangs” feature (with an exclamation point “!”) which allows you to narrow search results down to one particular site, you aren’t protected by using the middleman of DuckDuckGo from having the destination site know your details. DuckDuckGo just places you in the second site, apparently, and the destination site will know various data about you as if you had simply gone to the destination site directly and not used DuckDuckGo at all.
This is from DuckDuckGo’s own description at https://duckduckgo.com/bang:
“Bangs are shortcuts that quickly take you to search results on other sites. For example, when you know you want to search on another site like Wikipedia or Amazon, our bangs get you there fastest. A search for !w filter bubble will take you directly to Wikipedia.
***Remember, though, because your search is actually taking place on that other site, you are subject to that site’s policies, including its data collection practices.***”
(I added the asterisks for emphasis in that quotation.)
Maybe most people are already aware of this, I don’t know, but I’ve read several comments by privacy/security-conscious people who say they really like the “bangs” feature of DDG (for example, to take them via DDG to Google to do a Google-only search) who seem to think that DDG is shielding them or presenting them with a proxy type of situation when apparently that is not the case.
Yep, DuckDuckGo bangs are not proxies but convenient shortcuts or quick links to access various search engines. Qwant and Infinity Search also employ similar features.
Hi Sven,
In your description of MetaGer in this post, you wrote, “MetaGer is an open source metasearch engine based in Germany, which gets search results from Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and others.”
Is it still the case that MegaGer uses Yandex, Yahoo, and others?
I don’t necessarily want to use Yandex, but I would like a way to see Yahoo results in a relatively private fashion. Does MetaGer have this option now?
I have noticed when using MetaGer (in the English language) on my computer browser that the only two search engines it references are Bing and Scopia.
Additionally, those two search engines are the only ones they claim to use (on my desktop searches): On any MetaGer search page in my browser, at the top of the results are some buttons for “settings” and “filter”, and when “settings” is clicked, it goes to an informational page where MetaGer says,
“Below are all the search engines available for this focus. Bing, Scopia”
On the other hand, in the past couple of weeks, I recall having tried out a new search engine (that was not Yandex directly) which was bringing up a lot of results from Yandex, but I can’t remember what it was.
(…It was possibly on a tablet that I was setting up for an elderly relative.)
On my laptop/desktop computer, I haven’t noticed any Yandex results in my search engine experimentations of the past few days (where I’ve newly visited almost all of the search engines that you mentioned in this article).
When I was seeing so many Yandex results, would I have unwittingly been looking at a different iteration of MetaGer than I have got now? I do remember that it was on a search engine that labelled each search result with the primary source for it, which is the only way that I could have known that they were pulling results from Yandex.
Is MetaGer is the only search engine that labels the initial source of the search results so clearly?
Most search engines are based on third-party crawlers. There are only a few crawlers/spiders: Google, Baidu (China), Bing, Yandex, Naver (South Korea), Seznam (Czech), Mojeek, Cliqz, Exactseek, ActiveSearchResults and Gigablast. All other search engines are metasearch engines. Back in the day metasearch engines pull results from many sources; nowadays not many do that as most just focus on one source. I like to call one-source engines as proxies. These search engines (meta or proxy) have their own algorithms to aggregate and sort search results as well as inserting sponsored results (ads).
Proxies include:
– Startpage (Google)
– Gibiru (Google)
– Swisscows (Bing)
– Peekier (Bing)
– Qwant (Bing)
– Yippy (Bing)
– Ecosia (Bing)
– Whaleslide (Bing)
– Givero (Bing)
– Lilo (Bing)
– Findx (Bing)
– OneSearch (Bing? Yahoo?)
– JiveSearch (Yandex–seems offline)
Metasearch include:
– DuckDuckGo (Yandex, Yahoo, Bing–does not label search result origin)
– Searx (Google, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Yahoo, Bing)
– Metager (Bing, Scopia)
– eTools.ch (Bing, Wikipedia, Tiger, Mojeek, Yahoo, Yandex, Base, Moose, Ask, Fastbot, Findx, Search, DuckDuckGo, Exalead and Google)
– Carrot2 (based on eTools.ch but with search result clustering)
Somewhere in between proxy and metasearch. More like quick links. Searches made will appear to originate from these websites (?):
– Disconnect Search (DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Bing)
– Infinity Search (Bing with links to quickly search from Internet Archive, Wikipedia, YouTube, GitHub, GitLab, Unsplash Image, Wikimedia Commons, Amazon, Twitter, Reddit, BoardReader, Petey Vid, Stack Overflow, Wolfram Alpha, Project Gutenberg, Wayback Machine, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Yandex, Qwant, Cliqz, Pixabay, Pexels, Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, Pinterest, Picsearch, Nasa Image, Tineye Reverse Image, etc.)
Check out search engine map, courtesy of Mojeek https://www.searchenginemap.com/
Add one more crawler: Exalead.
Reply to Restorer –
Thank you for your extensive outline of different search options. It’s a great way to look at it.
Making a further breakdown and ranking of them, within the existing categories, based on their privacy/security practices would be amazing. 😉
Although privacy-oriented folks would probably end up with approximately the options that Sven’s article lays out above.
—
On my elderly relative’s tablet which I mentioned in my earlier comment — the tablet on which I had installed a new browser (Brave) and created bookmarks to a couple of search engines a few weeks ago, and on which I clearly remember seeing *so many* Yandex results (I knew they were from Yandex because each individual result was labelled as to its source, in the way that MetaGer does) — I only made bookmarks on that tablet to DuckDuckGo and MetaGer, so I guess it must have been MetaGer that I was looking at, since DuckDuckGo (apparently) doesn’t label the origin of each search result. But I don’t understand HOW it could have been MetaGer, since they apparently only source from Scopia and Bing now (at least as far as what MetaGer on my laptop/desktop computer claims).
That’s why I asked the questions in my comment about whether different iterations (like on different operating systems, different browsers…?) of MetaGer might source from different search providers, and if the above article is outdated where it says that MetaGer provides results from Yahoo and Yandex, or if that is still possible to configure.
—–
Regarding SearX, I read yesterday that not all iterations of SearX source from all the search providers that you have listed for it — some popular iterations eventually become banned from accessing certain providers (such as Google), but some apparently are intentionally set up with a narrower selection of the possible search sources.
It’s too bad that the developers’ SearX.me iteration is no longer active, as I gather it was the most trustworthy one.
The following SearX list of instances and grading system I found helpful:
https://searx.space/# (note: requires Javascript to display the chart)
from that page: “Public instances listed here may yield less accurate results as they have much higher traffic and consequently have a higher chance of being blocked by search providers such as Google, Qwant, Bing, Startpage, etc.”
You’re welcome, Bobo. I’ll try make some breakdown of the search engines. Something compact—if it gets too big, might have to make my own blog ? (privacyrestorer.com sounds nice)
Metager probably used Yandex back in the day. Now it’s just Bing and Scopia. Try eTools.ch for Yandex results without going to Yandex.
This Searx instance looks good https://search.fuckoffgoogle.net . It’s not on the list you gave but the German community building the website Fuck off Google looks legit. They have a Google alternative wiki https://wiki.fuckoffgoogle.de/index.php?title=GoogleAlternatives
This is a follow-up to my April 26 comment regarding my first experiences with SwissCows.
I thought I would mention something in their favor which I found out tonight when I decided to try them out again.
In my first comment here about them, I had complained about how some of their most-relevant search results were passing through “smartredirect.de” before going to the target webpage, which Ublock Origin is stopping altogether on my browser.
I was not surprised that they are doing this (which presumably gives SwissCows some ad revenue for the referrals, and I don’t begrudge them at all for seeking to fund their operation),
but I am wondering if,
in the “smartredirect.de” exchanges that SwissCows conducts,
they are (like the search engine Metager does) actually revealing the computer user’s IP address and search terms to “smartredirect.de” _and_ to the company whose webpage the computer user is finally delivered to,
because I don’t recall having read any warning to users of SwissCows that this is what was going on under the surface.
(That is in contrast with MetaGer, which does admit — albeit on a slightly-out-of-the-way information page — that it gives away the computer user’s full IP address and search terms to its “Partnershops”.)
(Of course, maybe SwissCows does describe somewhere exactly what computer user information they give away to external companies in that situation — I have not closely studied the SwissCows site.)
On the plus side, what I now see, after revisiting SwissCows tonight to do a sample search, is that frequently the very same search results that are directed through “smartredirect.de” will appear for a second time in the search results list a few rows down, and in the second instances, when the links are clicked on, the computer user is not passed through “smartredirect.de”, but is simply taken right to the target webpages.
MetaGer shows the obvious “Partnershop” icon on the links that will be sent through “smartredirect.de” (and which will be harvested for IP address and search terms) before landing on the destination webpage and SwissCows (at least in my view of it) does not seem to have a little sign indicating that a link is an “ad” or “paid for” (but my view of websites is definitely not the typical view, because I have the settings of Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, etc., ratcheted up pretty high, so maybe there is normally such a indicator on those redirected links for most visitors to SwissCows).
Based on my brief experience, the benefit of SwissCows over MetaGer in this case is that SwissCows repeats the redirected links again, straightaway, in their list of search results, without embedding any redirection on the second showing of the results — whereas MetaGer does not seem to offer those links a second time (without any redirection), no matter how far down their list of search results the computer user scrolls. This is definitely one reason that I’d favor SwissCows over MetaGer for general searching.
Bobo,
I use AdGuard ad blocker only and for it’s simplicity to it’s users knowledge to operate. I get sometimes in SwissCows when I enter my search terms – Oops ! “we could find that” or something similarly to the wordage. Refreshing the page then brings up all kinds of links- for the same terms used. Strange for sure.
Quote: “(like the search engine Metager does) actually revealing the computer user’s IP address and search terms to “smartredirect.de” _and_ to the company whose webpage the computer user is finally delivered to,”
**I believe some kind of proof would be need to any AD revenue, as anything now a days could be AI based and to repeating the searches endlessly to seek a percentage of the AD revenues.
Is MetaGer is the only search engine that labels the initial source of the search results so clearly?
I’d suggest turning off any ad blockers you run and try that as your interested in a private search engine(s) ad links. One by one then to see – taking screenshots of both ways, no ad blockers used and then turning your adblocker(s) on, with then your refreshing the page for that screenshot.
Once you get them covered that way – go back and compare the images to see a difference. I’d certainly use the same search terms with each private search engine.
Probably the ads revenues links are at the top of the listed links of your search terms…as usual without an adblocker being used. There are millions of pages on the web, but none are more important to digital marketers than search engine results pages, or SERPs.
Search engine optimization specialists and PPC advertisers alike are on par for the same precious real estate in the most prominent parts of the SERPs. So the competition is fierce and any technological developments in web search mean it’s more important than ever for digital marketers to know how web search works and what they can do to maximize their visibility.
That means eventually any third parties trackers are driving the web search engines when it comes to tracking it’s consumers. If you’d stop and consider there are tens of thousands in third parties trackers present in at least two first parties sites of the top 500 most visited by U.S. web audience. Perhaps the tracking game has upped the stakes for 2020.
As always I find your contents interesting Bobo, thank you.
I’m just one pebble of sand on the worlds beach hit by the waves of privacy loss in online web use !!!
This is in reply to commenter Sonar’s message to me —
Thank you for your reply.
My purpose in commenting here is to discuss my and others’ experiences, concerns, and privacy/safety strategies; and ask related questions of Sven and his other readers.
I don’t plan to contact these search engine firms myself, but if you decide to do so, let us know what you have found out!
Hey bobo – in all three of your 4 posts on April 26th, great overview in details…
Love the way your mind works, though it’s a state of your observations as an overall chunks viewing as you compared of your mentioned here. Maybe when you can understand it well enough then to be more of a granular fine tuning of it by your deductions – hope you’ll pass on what you’ll learn to all of us here.
– I don’t think Sven sees or understands these points yet of how they affect users privacy as your search and data’s – “ad trackers utilize various browser fingerprinting, identification, and tracking techniques beyond what most of us could comprehend.” Web users unacquainted with the technological affairs of a modern Internet’s based world as seen into the backside of it’s business end.
It all boils down to the almighty Ad-Tech industry -overall view- between your search term and the links your shown to click on to the site you’ll end up at.
Only for now I feel it’s on the back end (server-side, not as the client-side in your browser) will begin the recording of your information and sending it out as telemetry for it’s own profits.
I feel there’s a monopoly forming if it hasn’t yet, to that gleaming of users private data’s for the content they seek displayed on the free internet and for it to live… Resources of web content needs only funding to be there and not by excess to exceeding in funds as they have to profits in trading of users private data’s today.
https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/#comment-79514
Yes I agree when a privacy search engine twists and contorts users privacy from that perfectly clear idealism of using them over another engine. Rather than as to having been financed as they are and from it’s back-end dealings to having a presents on the web, it can become a distorted mess and straining for the users trying to maintain their search data’s privacy. Then when any unknown financing happens by any one of them – who of the private search engines as that can say (or has said) it stops for the month at $$$ as our bills have been paid, and any more is pure profits to them at their users privacy loss.
Take out the VPN (unscripted nature) I had used here and replace them with any of the private search engines and it’s all under the roof of the users browser. Which I feel browsers are at worst SSL-intercepting Proxy Appliances or the ‘private search’ you’ll add to them as tools. To them benefiting in your search privacy becomes then based on intercepting & eavesdropping more-or-less of redirecting their users over to the private search engines monetary gains. https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/#comment-79836
Then on SwissCows my mentioned > “Since Swisscows normally does not advertise, as Google and other search engines do, we offer our sponsors a unique opportunity to publish a banner on Swisscows as a thank you gift for donations of 1,500 CHF or more during the donation period.” What if a SPONSOR is an advertiser and it’s actually an ad shown?
> WANT TO GET RID OF IT? > https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/#comment-77384
and
https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/#comment-77745
I do really think your on to something so I’m asking kindly – please pursue it bobo.
Contact them all (Brave, Qwant, MetaGer, SwissCows – uBlock Origin, Peerblock) for a final word as what they have to say as you’ve tied it together here on April 26th.
I’m also thinking it deals with directly or indirectly private search messing with servers Trusted Certificates / certificate’s fingerprint – which can be easily be viewed through any web browser’s user-interface, completely gives you the truth.
https://restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine/#comment-77771
Thanks for your information…now and your following up!
Hi Sven,
In this article, under “4. Use a good ad blocker”, you wrote, “There are of course many other privacy tools to consider, but these four are arguably among the most important for achieving a baseline level of privacy and security.”
However, in this section you did not name “these four” ad blockers, and the adjacent hyperlink that is attached to “many other privacy tools” takes one to a long article that does not contain a specific list of 4 recommended ad blockers (as far as I could see when skimming it).
Had you meant to attach a hyperlink to the words “these four” which leads to the following article by you — https://restoreprivacy.com/ad-blocker/ ? It describes four ad blockers that you recommend.
I would suggest that you go ahead and paste that summary list of 4 from the ad blocker article to this article, since it doesn’t take up much room, and it would give the reader of this article some good, relevant information without having to leave this article to go read a different article.
Hi Bobo, I was referring to the four privacy tools mentioned being top priority: private search engine, secure browser, VPN, and ad blocker. I updated the article to clarify that.
Hi Sven,
My fourth comment tonight… a couple of observations about DuckDuckGo.
Since the start of DuckDuckGo, I have been wary of trusting the founder’s promises due to some of his prior shady business decisions (I read a blog by him years ago where he apologised for those, so it’s not like he denies them), and I have never been bowled-over with the search results.
However, because of Startpage’s recent problematic privacy issues that your website clued me in on, I’ve been using DuckDuckGo on and off lately, to see if I could learn to like it better (setting aside for the moment its problematic privacy issues).
I still don’t like it.
I generally have the Brave browser and Ublock Origin set to not allow Javascript at the start (tailoring their levels to each site I want to view, according to my risk tolerance per site), and I have learned that for DuckDuckGo there are 2 sites that will work when Javascript is not allowed:
non-Javascript site: https://duckduckgo.com/html/
lite site: https://duckduckgo.com/lite
I guess that the lite site is for mobile use, I am not sure. The search results of both those sites are the same. The lite site is more basic and harder to read; the html site is more nicely-formatted (but not great).
Unfortunately, both of those sites often return results in Russian, Czech, and Greek, even when I have my region on the sites set to US English. It’s not like those foreign language results are, say, just 10% of the results… they are more like 60% of the results, and that means skimming down a list of search results to find what you are looking for is pretty time-consuming.
Sven, you might want to mention those 2 alternate DDG addresses in your overview above, for people who would rather not have Javascript on for searching.
I have just noticed that the Brave browser shield detail thing (when you click on the lion’s head on the right side of the address bar at the top of the page) shows some weird behavior when I go to DuckDuckGo.com. On the “scripts blocked” area, it has:
“7 scripts blocked
metager.de (2 scripts)
duckduckgo.com (5 scripts)”
Why would go to DuckDuckGo.com on a new tab on a cleaned-up browser engage 2 MetaGer scripts? Is that normal?
I don’t have any tabs or windows open with MetaGer at the moment.
MetaGer is not the default search engine on my browser.
I had run the Brave browser’s “clear browser data” setting (I deleted everything possible) after I looked at MetaGer earlier this evening.
Dear Sven,
This is my third comment tonight, about my brief, unhappy experience with Qwant:
I have spent the past hour trying to use Qwant for the first time, but it’s not working for me.
A. When I first typed in the address of the Qwant site (after I sorted out the issue I describe in point B below), it redirected me to Qwant Lite, for users without Javascript enabled. That makes sense, because generally I have Javascript off in my Brave browser and Ublock Origin.
However, I tried making the Brave “shields” totally down, and turning Ublock Origin off completely, and still when I typed in the Qwant.com address, I was redirected to the Qwant Lite site.
I don’t mind using a “Lite” site, which I sometimes do with DuckDuckGo, but I’m not sure what problem with my computer the main Qwant site is running into, since my Brave shields are down and Ublock Origin is turned off.
B. When I first tried to go to the Qwant site, several IP addresses were stopped by my Peerblock program and the Qwant page would not load.
Some of my Peerblock block lists are for all IPs from specific countries, and the following Qwant IPs were coming up on Peerblock as being from Poland (which I have blocked on Peerblock):
194.187.168.99, 194.187.168.100, 194.187.168.101, 194.187.168.110, 194.187.168.117.
I allowed them through on Peerblock temporarily, but then I had the issues with Qwant that I described in point A above.
C. After I got the Qwant Lite page to show up, when I tried to do my first search, another IP address was blocked by my Peerblock — it was identified on Peerblock as a “Google” IP. It was 172.217.6.163.
Question for you: Why is Qwant connecting through my computer with a Google IP? Does it always do that on everyone’s searches? Does that mean that Google can identify that particular search instance (the term used) as being from my IP address?
(Note: I recollect that I have noticed that another one of the search engines you list here sometimes makes contact with a Google IP that is stopped by my Peerblock — it is either DuckDuckGo or MetaGer, and neither one of them is supposed to be getting results from Google, only Bing (generally). Whichever search engine does that — and it might be both of them, I don’t remember actually — the fact that that Google IP is not allowed through by my Peerblock setup does *not* stop the search in general from going ahead and returning results, so I’ve never temporarily allowed that Google IP through Peerblock, and I haven’t noted down what the IP number was. But why would any of the “more-private”, Bing-reliant search engines connect to Google?)
D. Even after I temporarily allowed the “Google” IP and the “Poland” IPs through Peerblock, the search I then attempted on Qwant Lite said it had “no results”.
That was weird, because I had used the same search term that I had already tested tonight on other search engines you mentioned in the above article, including DuckDuckGo, MetaGer, six different instances of SearX, and SwissCows, and it’s the one-word name of a mainstream product that is sold in every supermarket and drugstore/pharmacy in North America and the U.K., so all the other search engines had hundreds of results for that name — therefore, to have no results at all on Qwant was a peculiar search result. (And that was with the Brave shields entirely down and Ublock Origin off, as well as the 5 Poland IPs and 1 Google IP allowed through temporarily.)
I then tried a few generic search terms that would get many, many hits on any search engine, but on Qwant Lite it said that they had “no results”.
I don’t know what the problem is. I’m not going to disable Peerblock entirely (along with having the Brave shields down and Ublock Origin off) in order to test Qwant further, because I’d never do all that just to use a search engine.
Dear Sven,
Following on from my comment about MetaGer, now a comment about SwissCows:
I have not used it as much as MetaGer in the last few weeks, but I also find that a number of its search results (like MetaGer’s) when clicked on, are stopped by my Brave browser and Ublock Origin with the message: “uBlock Origin has prevented the following page from loading: http://www.smartredirect.de/redir…(etc.)…”
This happens with the same kind of external sites that MetaGer would call “Partnershops” (for example, with search results that go to links at Walmart.com).
However, SwissCows does not seem to admit anywhere what is going on with those redirects.
Questions for you:
What is the purpose of these redirects, for SwissCows?
Are they getting paid when computer users click on them, like MetaGer is?
When the links are clicked on, do they send the computer user’s search terms and IP address to the external website, like MetaGer does?
SwissCows doesn’t seem to offer a proxy function (“open anonymously”) like MetaGer does, but “bare” links are able to be copied directly from the SwissCows results list and pasted into a new browser window manually, if one wishes to bypass the redirect (when it happens).
Unlike MetaGer, SwissCows requires me to allow Javascript through my Brave browser and UblockOrigin, to even see the SwissCows site. Their site layout, when it comes to the text search results, seems to be more more easy on the eye and quickly skimmable than MetaGer’s site layout, but maybe that’s due to the Javascript (I don’t know much about that sort of thing).
(The SwissCows “semantic map” graphic drives me up the wall, but I just don’t like those sorts of results-cloud thingamajigs. And I know that they offer a way to turn that off.)
The SwissCows results appear to be only from Bing, but for some reason their Bing results seem to be a little more “on point” and relevant than the MetaGer Bing results. (Maybe that’s because there’s no Scopia results falling in between the Bing results on SwissCows the way they do on MetaGer; I haven’t compared the two sites closely on the very same search terms.)
Also, a couple of weeks ago, when I was first trying out SwissCows, in the “advertise here free as a sponsor” box (which doesn’t make sense – surely the sponsorship itself costs something) that appears at the top of the SwissCows search results page, for a day or two it consistently showed me a US-focussed “political opinion” message along the lines of “fringe conspiracy theory”, which surprised me, especially since it’s a site that filters out certain themes in order to be “child friendly”.
The combination of:
a. the problem of many of SwissCows’ links being sent through unexplained redirects which were then halted by Ublock Origin
b. having to turn off my Brave and Ublock Origin’s javascript blockers to even see the SwissCows site
c. the SwissCows’ sponsor’s conspiracy-theory-esque ad (which I found a little disturbing) appearing at the top of the search results pages for a while
d. the small annoyance of the “semantic map” taking up so much of the page (even when the semantic map was turned off, that wide area of the page was just left blank)
e. the fact that they only use Bing for search results
…made it a search engine that I didn’t really wish to return to, after I had tried it out for a couple of days.
At least with MetaGer,
a. They at least admit (albeit in a somewhat hidden fashion, on a secondary page) that they are sending the computer user’s search terms and IP address to some of the destination websites when certain MetaGer links (of “Partnershops”) are clicked on
b. I can see it without taking the time to allowing all Javascript through Brave and Ublock Origin
c. They don’t have (as far as I can see) any unavoidable ads from sponsors
d. They don’t have a semantic map kind of graphic
but — e. — it may just be a mistaken impression on my part, but based on a brief usage, it seems that their Bing-derived results are a little less useful, and definitely less easy on the eye, than SwissCows’ Bing-derived results.
Hi Sven,
Regarding MetaGer, two topics:
A. In your description of MetaGer in this post, you wrote, “MetaGer is an open source metasearch engine based in Germany, which gets search results from Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and others.”
However, I have noticed when using MetaGer (in the English language) that the only two search engines it references are Bing and Scopia.
Additionally, those two search engines are the only ones they claim to use (on *my* searches, anyway): On any MetaGer search page in my browser, at the top of the results are some buttons for “settings” and “filter”, and when “settings” is clicked, it goes to an informational page where MetaGer says,
“Below are all the search engines available for this focus.
Bing
Scopia”
Also, the observation that MetaGer only uses those two search engines is mentioned by the commenter “Restorer” in a April 25th comment in this discussion thread.
Question A1: Is there a way that I can get MetaGer to also use Yahoo and other search engines for my searches with them, or is that functionality now gone from MetaGer?
If Yahoo, Yandex, etc. are no longer used by MetaGer, please update your article here accordingly.
—-
B. Regarding MetaGer’s Bing results on my searches, many of those search results have the word “Partnershop” encircled to the top right of the individual search result, and my browser setup (with Brave browser and Ublock Origin) does not allow me to see anything at all when I click on those links. (There is a message saying, “uBlock Origin has prevented the following page from loading: https://www.smartredirect.de/redir/clickGate.php?….(etc.)….”
This is what MetaGer says about their Partnershops: “Whenever you see results with a label that says ‘Partnershop’, this is just a regular result. It is not ranked differently or prefered. The result link is associated with a company that pays us a small amount for every time the link is clicked, so that MetaGer can be financed. The result also shows the company’s logo. Your data is only transmitted to te websites of these companies when you click the result. The transmitted data includes your MetaGer search phrase and your IP address. In order to avoid the transmission of such data, you may use the ‘OPEN ANONYMOUSLY’ button, but if you do so, we do not get paid for the click.”
When I do as they suggest, and click the “Open Anonymously” button, the resulting webpage is a lot of gobbledegook, even when I allow all Javascript through the Brave and Ublock Origin settings, and refresh the proxy page.
Therefore, all the MetaGer search results I get when the target website is a “Partnershop” are unreadable (unless I want MetaGer to go ahead with their procedure of “Your data is only transmitted to te websites of these companies when you click the result.”)
Unfortunately, often the “Partnershop” results are the search results that I am looking for in relation to my search query and would be helpful for me to view.
One way to get around it is to hit the “Open Anonymously” button, see the gobbledegook page, copy the link address that shows at the top of that page, open a new browser tab, paste the copied link address, and click “enter”, which usually shows the desired page just fine (so I don’t understand why the MetaGer proxy view can’t show the page “as normal” if an unproxied view of it appears fine – without my having to undo any of my Brave and Ublock Origin settings – ?).
Doing that copying and pasting is a hassle and takes extra time… and it affects a good percentage of my searches on MetaGer.
I would suggest that you mention this issue in your article’s description of MetaGer above, to let readers know that MetaGer says it sends out the computer user’s IP address and search phrases quite freely to its “Partnershops”: “Your data is only transmitted to te [sic] websites of these companies when you click the result. The transmitted data includes your MetaGer search phrase and your IP address.”
Question B1. What protections in the typical setup of Brave browser and Ublock Origin would I need to momentarily turn off, in order for me to be able to see a readable facsimile when I click on MetaGer’s “Open Anonymously” proxy view of an external webpage that is owned by one of their “Partnershops”?
(Actually, going to the hassle of individually adjusting the Brave and Ublock Origin settings just to read one webpage probably would take more time than opening a new browser tab, clicking on the MetaGer proxy page link, and copying and pasting the intended destination page’s unobfuscated url from the proxy page to the new browser tab.)
—
When I’ve clicked on a few MetaGer “Scopia” results, I’ve actually had my Norton Internet Security warn me that they are dangerous sites, so lately I have been avoiding clicking on those results.
This leaves me with only MetaGer’s Bing results, which seem to offer a selection that is even worse than simply going to Bing (which I’ve never liked as a search engine) would provide.
Of course, using Bing (or Google or Yahoo) “straight” would be at the cost of privacy, and I’ve always been willing to endure quite a lot of hassle to keep whatever small bits I can of my privacy.
However, if a lot of MetaGer’s Bing results are through Partnershops, and MetaGer always sends the Partnershop websites some of the computer user’s personal data (“The transmitted data includes your MetaGer search phrase and your IP address”), then using MetaGer (without having a private subscription to MetaGer, which apparently is the only way to stop MetaGer from sending the computer user’s IP address and search terms to the external websites it links to which have a “Partnershop” arrangement with MetaGer) doesn’t seem like it’s as great of an option as it seemingly was in years past (when it sourced from more search providers).
Im new to this so lets just put that out of the way
Im wondering since im currently configuring firefox for relatively good security and privacy as well as pairing it with express vpn. Im just wondering what the currently best default search engine to use on firefox is. I still want to get relevant searches to what im actually searching for so NO not 100% secure but still private enough as I hear ddg is not really trustable because of the fishy activity by the owner.
Try Qwant.
Most search engines are either based on Google and Bing hence meta search engines as they don’t have their own crawler. Each of them may or may not tweak the search results obtained from the provider. So you don’t really have much variety.
DuckDuckGo—Yandex, Yahoo, Bing
Qwant—Bing
Swisscows—Bing with family filter
Peekier—Bing
Yippy—Bing
Startpage—Google
Gibiru—Google
Searx—DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Bing, Google
Metager—Bing, Scopia
DuckDuckGo has a shady history but it’s better than Qwant in terms of optional POST request and no IP logging. Qwant does not do POST, logs and anonymizes IP. No log is better than anonymized IP.
Searx has many instances. Try https://search.fuckoffgoogle.net
Good information Restorer !
Can we get a list of any few as in meta search engines that do have their own crawler. Of course looking at users privacy overall.
Thanks
Infinity Search is a new private search engine that is also open source.
https://infinitysearch.co/
https://gitlab.com/infinitysearch/infinity-search
@Usering apr 16th,
“Swisscows passes users through SmartRedirect.de when clicking on SERP links.” Elaborate please help us to do the same…
How did you find this out, seriously I’d like to know how for my own research in private search engines.
http://www.smartredirect.de . CNAME . 21041 . [aload-480426436.eu-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com] of the DNS info. [https://who.is/dns/smartredirect.de]
Domain name swisscows.ch – [https://www.nic.ch/whois/]
There are millions of pages on the web, but none are more important to digital marketers than search engine results pages, or SERPs.
Search engine optimization specialists and PPC advertisers alike vie for the same precious real estate in the most prominent parts of the SERPs, but competition is fierce and technological developments in search mean it’s more important than ever for digital marketers to know how search works and what they can do to maximize their visibility.
As one not wanting the tracking and profiling as the modem web allows.
First contact to the web is through a search engine usually for anyone.
Thanks for sharing *
Hello, I just checked and Cliqz (same browser) has a secure search engine too, you can take a look. Still in beta
https://beta.cliqz.com/
Thank you for this. A note: Swisscows passes users through SmartRedirect.de when clicking on SERP links. In addition to breaking some pages, this domain belongs to adgoal.net. Any thoughts?
Hello Sven
Can I just advise you and your users to be careful with Metager.
In its Privacy Policy it states that “In addition to donations and membership fees, we must finance our operation through non-personalized advertising on the results page. To receive this advertising, we give the first two blocks of the IP in connection with parts of the so-called user agent to our advertising partners.”
A true privacy firm should not be giving ANY part of a users IP address or User Agent to any advertising partner or third party.
I’m not sure if I would have Metager at number one in the list and would possibly mention this in its summary to let users know that these things are being recorded and sent to “…advertising partners”.
With the controversy going around about fuzzed information going to, and being found out by, third parties, it may be wise to warn users of this and the Metager privacy policy.
Many thanks.
Hi Sven,
Thank you very much for this great overview.
I have used and recommended Startpage/Ixquick for years, but I am trying out the Brave browser and Ublock Origin and I noticed some strange behavior with Startpage when I was looking at what was being blocked by Brave and Ublock Origin when I used Startpage, so I did a search on it tonight and found this article.
Until I read this tonight, I had not known that they changed direction a few months ago, and I am sad to lose this relatively-private resource that I and my extended family have relied on.
Also, I have always felt and voiced trepidation about DuckDuckGo, as I knew about the shenanigans that the founder got up to in the early part of this century, and it seems that they collect some data and have some ads, so I don’t see why they would deserve the public’s 100%, or even 75%, trust. I don’t know why privacy experts continue to be so blase about the relatively recent, relatively shady business ethics/actions of the founder. Maybe because it’s the least-worst American-based search engine, which isn’t saying much.
I am writing this comment because there is a topic missing — you introduce it in the FAQ introductory/summary paragraph, but it does not appear later in the text in the claimed position. Maybe you have just switched the content to another part of this article, or maybe you decided to remove the specific topic.
This is what I am talking about:
In the following section —
“Private search engine FAQs
Below we will answer some FAQs (frequently asked questions) with regards to private search engines:
How do private search engines make money?
Is DuckDuckGo really private?
Are US-based search engines safe?
How to keep your searches private
Considerations when choosing a private search engine”
— the second question – “Is DuckDuckGo really private” – is not addressed anywhere in that section, but the other 4 promised FAQ topics are discussed.
In your main (earlier) description of DuckDuckGo in this article, you don’t specifically say whether you think it is “really private”, but you imply that you don’t think it is as private as many people, even privacy/security experts, claim it is.
Hi Bobo, with the last update, I combined the bottom section on DuckDuckGo with the section on DuckDuckGo above, which discusses both Pros and Cons. Having both sections on DDG was repetitive. I just erased the reference you mentioned, thanks for pointing that out.
As noted in the DDG section, it’s not quite as private as some other alternatives I mentioned, but it all comes down to user preference.
This BIG NEWS goes out to non-Geeks (which I’m surely one in ranks) – as of a small bit in a byte count about people trying to help people, without any malicious intent of purpose. Though, the contributions they offer (myself included), needs done the proper vetting by yourself(s) as understanding of, (to secure Bits & Bytes in facts) – if the help indeed does meet up to your own Privacy and Security hygienic’s…threats logic model. So today this is but a small fraction of a danger to looking at using all Browser Extensions !!!
PLEASE NOTE: – this is a general overview not exact nor at all complete…
Browser Extensions aka add-ons, – – are not the same things as the known browser Plug-ins. Because – Plug-Ins, for example – – cover the things like Adobe Flash, Oracle Java, and Microsoft Silverlight. These plug-ins breeds having existed to allow for devices advancement towards the modern websites to embed and render content especially related to Java applets, PDFs content, Flash movies, and/or possibly some online gaming that are rendered with the needed use of a plug-in.
Plug-ins remain common targets for attackers because websites can load them and hackers can exploit the bugs concerning them. While Browser Extensions are all together very different. The websites you visit can’t use your Browser(s) Extension(s) to do anything. Essentially, the main differences are that Browser Extensions add features you can use in the devices browser on your system, while then your web or internet use allows the Plug-Ins to add features that websites can use. One of the only things they share in common is both must work in some complicity with/through the browser. The focus discussed here today is not about these Plug-ins but, going forwards addressing the Browser Extensions or add-ons if you prefer that term.
In theory, Browser Extensions you have elect to use, and by that use, you will grant them a license to “read and/or change all the data on the websites you visit”. Browser Extensions can see the websites you have browsed to, make changes to those webpages and report back to its creator with all the information they have done and/or log captured. So for a users Browser Extensions basic knowledge extensions can read, modify, and transmit extensive contents from all the webpages you visit. This could include keystrokes of sensitive information like your passwords, phone numbers, and credit cards as some items personally identifiable back to you – in adjacent to becoming nefarious ploys.
Browser Extensions are built on the web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. This so much has lowered the entry barrier for developers or even hobbyist coders and enables them to write Browser Extensions with relatively little assets and resources. And as if things are not bad enough using Browser Extensions, they had an ability to installed from third-party websites through something called the inline install API. Browser Extensions most generality are automatically updated. So, even if you took the necessary precautions before hand and did your research in vetting prior to installing an extension to the browser, the extension could be turned around at a later phase – then that before prior vetting had you to believing of it. The browser extension can also be subject to changing hands (owners). The original developer may sell their extension to another company and/or it may even get compromised and become the target of a supply chain attack.
Many browser extension developers have suggested they benignly using this sensitive user information, but there is always the danger that the all-access licensed user pass. You’ve given consent to will be abused or that at worst it becomes rogue software grabbing up keystrokes, login information, account numbers and other private data. Malware makers have hijacked or even bought legitimate browser extensions from their original developers and used their access on a device to pump invasive advertisements into webpages and still more evils deeds to users.
Using just an Ad Blocker browser extension as but one example for your understanding – of a browser extensions abilities. Most of the users data it would collect is about your browser and how you use this Ad Blocker browser extension, and it can be tied to a unique user-ID. That unique ID can be said as is randomly generated when you install this Ad Blocker extension, so not specifically tied to you personally – this is the vetting of facts you’d need to do in your understanding what the extension has a license to do. Not overlooking the real fact still remains it’s very possible for it to see, read, log any keystrokes of your sensitive information you have to enter for access to online accounts.
An ad blocker browser extension works or should by : 1) blocking a web page’s requests to download ads from the servers that host them, and 2) hiding any ads that can’t be blocked by method #1.
To do that, the browser ad blocker extension needs to see every page you open so that it can work on every page you visit. This also means that the ad blocker extension knows the URL of every page you visit which can be logged.
– It also sets at the end – your end of the VPN encrypted tunnel if your using a VPN for your protection from the whatever eyes of the web. It has a front seat to your opened browser window of view, like a total stranger setting right beside you…
Cause it see’s all the data on the displayed webpage to find any ‘unblocked ads’ amongst all the other content. Also it means that this specific ad blocker browser extension (as like so many extensions themselves) can see any forms you submit and your browsing history on that browsers opened tab or any tab you switch too.
(All extensions) as this one work in changing the data on the webpage by adding some HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code to the webpage to it’s ability of beings an ad blocker in blocking the ads or to hiding unblocked ads.
…Past victims – – Over 20,000,000 of Chrome Users were Victims of Fake Ad Blockers… [https://adguard.com/en/blog/over-20-000-000-of-chrome-users-are-victims-of-fake-ad-blockers.html]
As to your own proper privacy and security hygiene, make sure you really need the browser extension. Then by creating a new dummy Browser Profile for checking out any possible extensions first by it’s testing purposes is a reasonable precaution that you can help prevent a lot of shed tears later. Separate your real world home/business browser, where you will have all your online accounts open from time to time, from the testing dummy browser profile and you have added a simple as easy additional layer of security.
Before you install any browser extension, it’s a good idea to read the company’s privacy policy and know what the software can do, and plans to do, concerning that with your data. But such an honor system is only as effective as the people who are writing it. If you accept every permission a browser extension asks for without a second thought nothing can be done if you suffer loss from using it.
Many browser extension add-on’s quietly do their jobs without grabbing your data, but if online privacy and security concerns you at all, consider skipping the convenience of the browser extension, or thoroughly read its creator’s privacy policy so you know what you are agreeing to share when you install the software. Periodically checking if it’s changes owners, then check for any updates to date and any security audits on it. SEEK MULTIPLE ways of vetting it. Read real users reviews where your able to ask questions and get answers.
I personally think I’m better off using Win 8.1 Internet Explorer 11 for it’s closed eco-system to browser extensions adding and prefer going with an installed software program to do my privacy & security part from that venue. As opposed to trusting the use of any browser extensions! I limit them in other browsers I have used to need just the same of their offering tracking protection.
VPN’s being used should never be of the browser extension type, then it needs installed to the system (not browser), from there it depends on where your DNS requests are being sent as to which priority handles these calls. However, if all your network traffic is going via an encrypted VPN and it’s own DNS servers, no your hometown or local ISP chosen will not see it routes – but have you given thoughts that the VPN’s own needed ISP provider will of course see your tracks across the web? Which is another topic I hope Sven and the site team explores soon along with (CDN) A content delivery network, or content distribution network.
primus inter pares – first among equals / that is what contributors are…
Thank you
also see:
[https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/-particle-chrome-extension-sold-to-new-dev-who-immediately-turns-it-into-adware/]
Good find, Sonar. Thanks!
Most of these search engines return results with a URL that contains the search terms. Most ISPs are required to cache all URLs that a subscriber visits for at least 6 months, so that it is searchable by government agencies and hackers. I don’t know how any search engine that does this can call themselves private.
Of course one can avoid this somewhat by using a vpn, but this should not be necessary. Some search engines allow the choice of using POST to transmit search terms, and to generate a URL to set this on every visit. Still, it seems to me that most search engines, including those listed here, effectively violate users privacy by default in this way.
I always prefer search engines that use POST for the same reasons you listed, Johnson.
From what I’ve gathered, only a few use it. Searx and StartPage use POST by default. Whereas for DuckDuckGo, you have to toggle an option in their settings area, unless you use their lighter versions — duckduckgo.com/html/ or duckduckgo.com/lite/.
Would be great if this article listed which ones use POST submission.
Yes but if the search engines use HTTPS connection, ISP can only see the domain name (e.g. example.com) and not the full URL (e.g. example.com/q?search+term). So POST is good as well as using DNS that is encrypted and not the default by ISP. VPN is good too. Also, make sure browser and website uses trusted certificates.
Right now, http://www.metager.de does not automatically use HTTPS.
This is deeper and only remotely related, but it’s concerning at heart and deals with this sites purpose to inform users. So I’m building on your reply ; )
Trusted Certificates: All SSL-intercepting Proxy Appliances MUST provide a fraudulent spoofed certificate containing a public key for which it has the matching private key, and that private key cannot be the same as the actual remote server’s because private keys are a closely held secret and no one knows any server’s private key.
This means that no matter how much any SSL Proxy Appliance might want to duplicate a remote server’s certificate . . . it cannot. It is impossible. And the certificate’s fingerprint, which can be easily viewed through any web browser’s user-interface, completely gives it away the a lie.
The remote server’s REAL certificate and the SSL Appliance’s FAKED certificate MUST HAVE AND WILL HAVE radically different fingerprints. They will not be remotely similar. Verify their connection fingerprints, as one type of certificate which, when properly handled, as they have been in the Firefox and Chrome (and Chromium), but not Internet Explorer . . . CANNOT BE SPOOFED at all! In Firefox and Chrome, only 100% authentic Extended Validation (EV) certificates will display the extra “Green” indication!
What about this?
Aggressive adware applications (anti-malware security products), and some very popular one’s I must say, can break the trust between HTTPS – (HTTP Secure) websites and it’s users – have been at the center of controversy amongst the very nature of your use to employ them to secure your devices. Where their not checking the revocation status of SSL certificates before they will replace them with their new ones that are signed using a root certificate installed locally. These products use this technique in order to scan the encrypted HTTPS traffic for potential threats. This mean they turn to connecting to the remote web server, the browser is “securely” connected, only to the local Proxy Appliance which is decrypting, inspecting, and logging all of the material sent from the browser. It inspects all content to determine whether it abides by whatever arbitrary policies the local network is enforcing. It’s users have NO privacy and NO security.
If a website’s certificate has been revoked by an certificate authority for example, because it was issued fraudulently or because its private key was compromised by hackers, affected these anti-malware security products as it will still accept it as valid. More importantly, as part of their HTTPS scanning feature, they will convert the revoked certificate into a certificate that local browsers will trust, despite the fact that under normal circumstances those browsers would reject the original certificate.
The client asks for a secure-connection and the server says sure and we’re off to handshaking our way to a secure connection. The client, typically a Web-browser but it can also be an e-mail, cloud-storage or VPN as some other kind of network service client, replies with what kind of SSL it can handle and the client and server compare notes on identity certificates and cryptographic keys until they come to an agreement that they can set up a secure transport layer. At this point, most of you assume that you have a secure end-to-end connection.
INTERNETS PRELUDE:
The Internet is a cooperative PUBLIC DATA NETWORK. Its data traffic flows around the globe freely, transported by an incredible variety of intermediate carriers. These carriers cooperate because they need each other equally: “I’ll carry your traffic if you’ll carry mine.” And the system works. But with all of this traffic zipping around all over the place, in full public view, how do we KNOW that we are really connected to our bank, our medical records database, or any other public or private website? Websites are (obviously) easy to create, so copying a popular website and redirecting it’s traffic there to a malicious set up one would not be difficult. And, unfortunately, the world has no shortage of people who would like to do that.
The original un-secured HTTP web connections never attempted to authenticate or encrypt their connections. Users who knew enough to wonder and worry only could only hope that they were actually interacting with the website they intended. And that was fine back when the Internet was just a curiosity based interest. But the Internet has grown into a foundation resource where people conduct business, place orders, exchange stock, refer to their medical histories, perform their banking, and everything else in very much a manor as they do in the physical world or that same personal information being used. For the “cyber versions” of these activities to be feasible, users expect, need, and must have security and privacy in mind to conducting eBusiness actives.
The “S” added to the end of the “HTTP” was to mean SECURE.
(Or at least it was supposed to.) By the Lock Icon seen in the browser.
The presence of the unbroken key or the lock icon on the web browser once meant that the connection between the user and the remote web server was authenticated, secured, encrypted . . . and not susceptible to any form of eavesdropping by any third party. Unfortunately, that is no longer always true.
Some time ago, NSA could actually intercept and break Secure-Socket Layer (SSL) protected Internet communications. As too, any anyone could with an SSL interception proxy program or device place in the right logical position. If your company can do this at your business firewall junction couldn’t the NSA do something like this at a tier-one ISP? At a major company’s Web hosting facility? I don’t see why not. After all the NSA set up Room 641A at what was then AT&T’s 611 Folsom St. building in the mid-2000s for surveillance.
Does anyone know of a Chrome, FF or another browser extension that works with Facebook and other sites stripping the redirect links when you click on the link? Each time I try to send the link to someone else I see a tonne of crap embedded within the link. I can remove the junk manually (sometimes) but it’s quite time consuming.
I’m not sure ok but see if these can help, then see any ‘Related’ at their page bottoms to.
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fix-url-links-redirect/ngcknmhpnonbbekommfpihpddphgiojd]
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/url-tracking-stripper-red/flnagcobkfofedknnnmofijmmkbgfamf]
Maybe you should request this in “Trace” many extension see every site you visit and having many add-ons are privacy nightmare concern. As most extensions are just block the servers which track you, Trace goes the extra mile by adding in protection you wouldn’t otherwise have, such as:
Canvas Fingerprinting Protection, Audio Fingerprinting Protection, WebGL Fingerprinting Protection, HTTP Cookie Protection, Control over Referrer Headers, Removal of Special Chrome Headers, User-Agent Spoofer, Hyperlink Auditing Prevention see the link -[https://absolutedouble.co.uk/trace/]
You haven’t given your OS and this may be of help.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Adguard/comments/fe7380/how_do_i_block_redirects_from_a_specific_website/]
Use the ClearURLs extension.
From a craftsman who can make nearly anything, but has found ones mind repels IT information almost phobicly! 😏
I try – but…. Have conceded after many years – I’m ‘Techlexic’.
And I liked your article – enough info to help, not too much to confuse.
… Untill I foolishly attempted all the following queries and replies.
But I learnt stuff, and it was encouraging to see your passion for this overrides your ego… It was good to see you keep an open mind…and went back, rechecked previous info, followed up others suggestions, and you had no problem accepting if your findings weren’t complete , or if someone had more to complete it.
And that’s respectable! 🙏
When one has passion for what they do – the learning never stops.
And your attitude to your work made me realise something:
Ive always associated the word ‘craftsman’ with those who have good knowledge of old school skills of ‘ making useful stuff’…with style 😁
And a craftsman is always looking to ‘make even better’.
And I can see, that in the modern world… Craftsmanship is there too, always looking to make things the things we use better. ( Not so much the companies, but those who understand the needs of the users. To help them find the right jigsaw puzzle of Tech, programs, apps and tools ( and lawd knows what else) , to make their experience and use of technology easy , safe and unproblematic as possible.
I know a good knife from a bad.
I know quality design.
And I know whats just overpriced crap.
But here, I don’t!… I can’t tell one from the other.
So your article was great.
And Dude, never lose the integrity of your passion for quality… It’s what makes you a craftsman in your field.
👍😊
Hey rightly so, all we old types that can relate to this having lived long enough to know real differences in any choices given us thru the decade of ages. Then with the advertising hype’s of today can be associated to selling one on something not necessarily needed and beneficial. As opposed to it’s stand on merit(s) in (quality & functionality) of itself selling a customer covering a users real needs of fulfillment and true purpose as quality, usefulness, and pride driven class.
I believe you’ve described an artist here as the hearts passion matters to excel and grow in their attained lived perception skills of an overall attitude needed to be the unique work. As a craftsperson develops this overtime in a field but, to be limited of the one trade becoming a master of it’s specialty (master electrician ex.), singled out by just a timed vision on it and to it’s caliber sought by completeness.
What marketing used to do, is take something that is fungible (generic) and in marketing it adding slogans, brands, and sometimes additives to make it have a distinction over the other like goods, service, things. Even the additives being added are fungible as generic based. Gasoline as it is, is a fungible based product as is grain and wine, etc… Since we are a wheat, corn and soy based society you can understand this by the choices in what we’re given to consume. BECAUSE OF THIS it’s often the hype added to offering something over something else costing and causing the tenor and tiers of pricing for all these things that are at their core the same.
I remember a time – then if your old enough, we’ll remember product sponsors of the 50’s 60’s prime shows , that held only a few sponsors spots of that show as a marketing ploy for them to get noticed.
Bonanza – Cambells soups.
Dobie Gillis – Phillip Morris and Pillsbury alternated sponsorship.
ROUTE 66 – two primary sponsors, General Motors Chevrolet division, and Philip Morris Marlboro, you get a lot to like in a Marlboro/Fillter, Flavor, Pack and Flip-Top box}.
Lawrence Welk – started out with Dodge automobiles, then Geritol and I think Sominex sleeping tablets towards the end.
The FBI SHOW TV Series – Ford Motor Company, pushed Lincoln/Mercury
where you saw the ride claimed so smooth they had a diamond cutter cut a diamond during the commercial’s ride.
Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, television programs were regularly sponsored by one or maybe two companies, sometimes with a primary sponsor and an alternate sponsor. These companies paid the production costs for the programs and in return were featured more or less exclusively during commercial breaks, although certainly other commercials could be shown as well as time went on. There were often integrated commercials featuring the cast that tried to seamlessly work the sponsor’s name and the names of its product(s) into the show.
In some cases, the sponsor’s name made it into the title of the program: Hallmark Hall of Fame, Texaco Star Theatre, The Colgate Comedy Hour, and Kraft Television Theatre.
Honestly, there is no such thing as a private search engine. Its all interconnected. People trying to make money, setting up search engines and at times appear to you as masking their referrals, while receiving commission. Its all sticky, whether its the rented RF bands utilized by the “alleged” ISP, built in OS, baseband, and more. On top of all of that, all nodes and modes must be in FCC compliance. You may dodge a few third party ads at best.
-Ghost
At Ghost, I get it and where does the search engine reside but the browser most of the time, I recommend Adguards Stealth Mode for
General:
Hide your search queries when you proceed to the website from Google, Yahoo or any other search engine, this option hides the search query you used to find it.
Send Do-Not-Track header:
Sends a Do-Not-Track (DNT) HTTP header to queried websites that requires web apps to disable tracking of your activity.
Remove X-Client-Data header from HTTP requests:
Forbids Google Chrome to send its version and modifications information with requests to Google domains (including Double Click and Google Analytics).
Strip tracking parameters from URLs:
If you enable this option, AdGuard will strip tracking parameters like utm_* and fb_ref from pages’ URLs.
Tracking methods:
Self-destructing third-party cookies
Websites store your information and preferences with cookies – e.g., they remember the language you chose, the location or even the list of goods in your cart. When you get back to the site, your browser sends back the cookies belonging to that website, which allows it to “recall” your data.
Third-party cookies are those implemented by a website that is different from the one you are browsing at the moment. E.g., cnn.com may have a Facebook “Like” widget on it page. This widget will implement a cookie that may be read by Facebook later on. Some advertisers use such cookies to track what other sites you visit where their ads are posted.
Put a time period (in minutes) by the end of which all third-party cookies will be destroyed. Set the timer to 0 in order to block them completely.
Self-destructing first-party cookies (*I do it anyway at around 15 mins)
We do not recommend enabling this option as it may severely interfere with the work of certain sites.
Put a time period (in minutes) by the end of which all cookies will be destroyed. Set the timer to 0 in order to block them completely or higher as you require to work on the site logged in – preference is yours and a password manager quicken relogging in.
Disable cache for third-party requests:
When the browser addresses a page, the server assigns it an ETag, which the browser then uses to cache the contents. Upon subsequent requests it sends the ETag to the corresponding server, thus letting it learn the visitor’s identity. While the site files are cached, the ETag is sent every time your browser addresses this site. If the site has content embedded from another server (e.g., an image or iframe), that server will also be able to track your activities without your knowing it.
Block third-party Authorization header:
“Authorization” header value is cached by the browser, and then is sent alongside every request to that domain. It means that it can be used for tracking purposes just like cookies.
Browser API:
Block WebRTC, WebRTC (Real Time Communications) is a technology that allows streaming of data directly between browsers and apps. It can let others know your real IP address even if you use a proxy or VPN.
Enabling this option can disrupt the work of certain browser applications, such as messengers, chats, cinemas, or games.
Block Push API:
Push API enables servers to send messages to web applications regardless of browser status. This means you may see notifications from various websites even if your browser is hidden to tray or not launched. Enable this option to block browser Push API completely.
Block Location API:
Enabling this option will prohibit the browser from sending GPS data that could be used to find your location and modify your search results or otherwise influence your web experience.
Block Flash:
The Flash Player plugin has become increasingly vulnerable to online threats like viruses and hackers and can also have a significant negative impact on loading time for websites. When this setting is on, AdGuard blocks browsers’ ability to detect components (like plugins and ActiveXObject objects) that allow Flash to display content. This effectively means that browsers are unable to support Flash.
Block Java:
Some websites and web services still use old technology of supporting Java plugins. The API, which is the basis of Java plugins, has serious security issues. You can disable such plugins for security purposes. Nevertheless, even if you decide to use “Block Java” option, Javascript will still be enabled.
Miscellaneous:
Hide Referer from third-parties, Referer is one of HTTP headers for browser-to-server request. It contains the URL of request source. If you advance from one page to another, Referer will save the URL of the initial page. The server is often equipped with software that analyzes Referer and extracts various information from it. Enabling this option hides the current website from third-party sites by changing the HTTP header.
You can also set Referer of your choice by typing it into the Custom Referer field. Leave the field empty to use the default Referer.
Hide your User-Agent:
When you visit a website, your browser send the server its information. It looks like a text line that is a part of HTTP request beginning with “User-Agent:”. It usually includes the name and version of the browser, operating system, and language settings. We always replace your operating system with Linux as we consider *nix system users as less interesting for advertisers.
You can also set User-Agent of your choice by typing it into the Custom User-Agent field. Leave the field empty to use the default User-Agent.
Hide your IP address:
Stealth Mode cannot hide your IP address. However, we can conceal it so that websites you visit will take you for a proxy server. Sometimes, it helps, and websites ignore your real IP.
You can set a random IP that you would like to be perceived as yours by simply typing it into the corresponding field. Leave the field empty to use the default IP address.
Ghost don’t think that I don’t use all of them because I actually do…
AdGuard top of the line https://restoreprivacy.com/ad-blocker/
Very comprehensive list, thanks for putting it together.
Just for you to consider in case you were not aware,
+ Cliqz (https://beta.cliqz.com/)
+ Seznam (https://www.seznam.cz/)
They are both full independent search-engine with their own index. Mojeek is not the only exception, but one of the very few.
What about this?
https://search.privacytools.io
Tor > User Agent Switcher > PrivacyTools = FTW
Here are my two cents: Swisscows.com does not work with JavaScript disabled.
Perhaps they did not have enough resource for SSR’d pages, but even a highly rudimentary UI would be grateful in making JS-disabled experience usable.
I just dont understand why qwant forces one to install an extension for Firefox. It just should be able to set it as default search engine without the extension. And watch out, their default extension hijacks your homepage. They do have a extension called “Qwant basic” which doesnt do that, but still, it is an unnecessary extension. This for me shady behaivour makes me stick to duckduckgo.
I would also be careful with DDG.
Owned and based in America it too has a few things with it. Even @Sven has pointed some things out elsewhere on the site.
My personal favorate search is SwissCows. There are a couple of others but SC seems the best out of the list.
As far as browser, I was using Cliqz (if I remember correctly). The only downfall was you had to use THEIR pre-selected search. I just downloaded the SC app and used that, but that got combersome.
Hope this helped.
What do you mean with forces you? You can just use a custom url. (preferences > home)
No need to install the extension. Pretty happy with qwant to be honest.
Just realized Peekier was removed from the list of other search engines worth mentioning. No wonder @Mike brought it up recently..
Why remove it though ?
The copyright info on their page is 2017 and seems very dated. I also couldn’t find much info about Peekier.
Here’s what I found, Sven. Feel free to share it:
– Peekier is made by an indie developer, Tony aka fivesigma on Hacker News and ninesigma on Reddit.
– He announced Peekier on Hacker News on December 13 2016, stating it uses Bing mainly and also custom crawler.
– fivesigma also developed an HTML5 game called Airmash which he shared on Hacker News on December 10 2017
– The original Airmash is discontinued since Nov 23 2018 (server shut down April 24 2019) but from 2019-2020 today, other people have set up alternative servers to run the game based on original code.
– The developer is no longer active on both Hacker News (last comment Dec 10 2018) and Reddit (last comment Jan 19 2018)
– Although Peekier doesn’t get much publicity as Airmash, it survives longer and still runs today on original server (Feb 2020). There’s no telling how much longer will the service last which is quite unfortunate
– Peekier is a unique if not original concept in search engine, using visuals ie screenshot as search result preview. This saves people time and effort from clicking on search results as well as protecting their privacy
– There are no ads or trackers on Peekier. It doesn’t seem to use Bing and Code Fuel together like Ecosia and Givero
That’s all I found out. Peekier seems all right to use, no malicious intent albeit a bit recluse. It’s hard to juggle between life, career and personal project as an indie developer anyway.
Sources:
https://www.janwillemboer.nl/blog/posts/2019-11-airmash-history/
https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=fivesigma
Thanks for the info.
dropicon.com is a privacy-respecting search engine with a unique drag and drop UI
Hi James, could you explain a bit how to use Drop Icon? I’m not sure how to use it.
Each icon represents a keyword. So for example; if you were searching for US restaurants you would drag the American and Restaurant icons into the search box and hit the search button.
Very helpful list, Sven. Thanks very much! I have also found out about Lukol, Gigablast, Peekier, Search Discreet, and Gibiru. Have you had a chance to look these search engines over? If so, what do you think about them?
Hey Mike, I haven’t looked at those too closely yet, but feel free to share what you learn.
Gibiru and Lukol are proxy services similar to Startpage. Gigablast seems to be its own search engine and is open source. I am unsure about Peekier and Search Discreet though all state they respect the privacy of their users and do not record their searches. One other search engine, Yippy, is very good and I will use it or Gibiru. I like the fact on Yippy you can preview a page before opening it. Peekier has this same feature.
Discrete Search appears to be under the same company as Search Encrypt which Sven doesn’t recommend in the article due to its vagueness.
Not much is known about Lukol, its privacy policy is basic and vague.
Peekier looks fine, digging thru the Net and it appears to be the work of a small developer who once promoted his/her engine on hacker news. The engine still works but no update on the website since 2016. There’s no visual search engine like it so far.
Gibiru, Yippy and Gigablast are welcome alternatives.
@Mike, have you tried dropicon.com and izsearch.com ?
On lukol – “We obtain search results via Google custom search.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you’ve provided to them or they’ve collected from your use of their services. If you wish to opt out of Google cookies you may do so by visiting the Google privacy policy page.”
[https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites?hl=en]
WHO is the advertising and analytics partners ? To ME it’s GOOGLE
No thanks…
Question: big as G is wouldn’t it be worth it to tap the smaller search’s claiming privacy to only add more users data, if there’s not a defined separation printed out on the site covering this?
Give me one without the ads and we’re closer to ideal for users.
Then off-topic why does the Walton family (Walmart) have a Bank (almost entirely owned) by them?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvest_Bank]
I would not call searx.me an official instance per the creator’s comment (I noticed the Wiki also corrected this a few months ago).
“Searx.me isn’t an official public searx instance.” – asciimoo
“It has infrastructure issues nowadays, sorry for the inconvenience. I should stop the instance while these issues are unresolved.” The site is now down.
https://github.com/asciimoo/searx/issues/1809#issuecomment-573887189
Sven, I’m interested in your opinion of etools.ch from a privacy angle? (No affiliation.) Reason: I’m interested in something to replace StartPage, yet a search engine that does not primarily rely on Bing.
eTools.ch is a private meta search engine, meaning it sends queries to multiple search engines. 16 in fact: Ask, Base, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Exalead, Faroo, Fastbot, Findx, Google, Mojeek, Moose, Search, Tiger, Wikipedia, Yahoo and Yandex.
Google-based alternative to StartPage would be Gibiru.
Hi I was mistaken about DNS calls from duckduckgo browser
the calls continued after i uninstalled the app, the weren’t related to the browser.
using malware bytes i found out my phone has a preinstalled virus like the blue phones(fota, addup),in system update.
i will have to get a new phone.
what do you think of the pinephones.
The PinePhone looks really good. I think they are shipping soon.
What does it take to become a data scientist?
Thanks for sharing this. It’s unfortunate that Startpage sold, because I loved Google’s results in a “private” package.
Today I alternate between DDG and Ghostpeek.com. You might be interested in trying this one out. It uses the same encryption as Search Encrypt, but without all the ads.
I can’t tell if you are a paid shill for Ghostspeek, or if you are actually serious. But anyway, for anyone else reading this:
Ghostpeek, the supposedly “private” search engine, is run by a sketchy shell corporation, which in turn is owned by a personal and mobile data aggregator based in China
Thank goodness you replied with the warning about ghostspeek Sven. I was just about to check it out… hard to trust posters nowadays. BTW, do you give the free version of ProtonVPN a yea or nay? I’m only interested in the free versions of software at this time.
Thanks again….
Hey Charles, yes, that’s about the only “free VPN” I would consider, but it’s quite limited on server selection and features. Overall not bad, but if you can afford it, the paid version is much better and offers all features and servers, while also supporting the company. Seee the ProtonVPN review
Charles,
I used the free VPN for a while before upgrading. I highly recommend them. When you can, I do suggest upgrading as the company is doing some really good things and it is good to support these types of companies.
I also noticed that Ghostpeek has annoying ads. I searched for the very easy to find “firefox extensions”
Ghostpeek told me: “No Results Found. Try some of our Sponsored Search Terms:” and then showed ad-links for Flights, Amazon, Ebay and so on. Not very trustworthy.
Hi i tried duckduckgo browser in android out of curiosity, while using dnsfilter from f droid.
duckduckgo make frecuent dns calls to umeng(alibaba).
i am doubting duckduckgo search engine now.
Thanks for reporting this. I think that DuckDuckGo has partnered with eBay and Alibaba for affiliates, but I’m not certain. I’ve also heard that DDG has not disclosed how it acquires data for targeted ads on its users.
Sven,
I don’t know how else to say this, but I am feeling very emotional/relieved/thankful that not only you exist, but that you wrote this, and that this website exists. I have yet to click away from this page but I am already so happy for this data.
The absolute level of depth, research, and scrutiny you employ in your analyses are thoroughly satisfying and what I would argue is NECESSARY for the most holistic picture. Particularly, investigating the financial motivations and relationships is often crucially under-examined by so many other ‘privacy’ sources.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
In case anyone might feel generous to amswer my question here, based on this, I am deciding to use SwissCows specifically on my Privacy Browser app. (SearX is near impossible without saving data/settings in order to disable DDG, Google, etc., to avoid errors on almost every search).
Then, in my Tor Browser app, I plan to maybe also use SwissCows or SearX if I feel motivated enough to set it up (for that one session only).
On my computer, I can set up my own instance of SearX, disable Google and DDG, and keep those settings saved. Hopefully this will work well?
I can’t help but feel completely frustrated at how difficult it is to use SearX but so many recommend it, I feel like I am missing something or am just stupid 🙁
Hello, yes, many people have been having problems with SearX lately, so you are definitely not alone in that regard.
If you are really serious about your privacy, You should run QubesOS with Perfect-Privacy or ExpressVPN and with your own Private SearX instance. https://github.com/92VV3M42d3v8/Qubes-Privacy-Doc/tree/Searx-instance–Private
Sven, this might not change much but heres more information about the investment in Startpage.
https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/en/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1277/0/startpage-ceo-robert-beens-discusses-the-investment-from-privacy-one–system1
I meant this one. Just in case you might not have seen it yet.
https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1275/0/what-is-startpages-relationship-with-privacy-onesystem1-and-what-does-this-mean-for-my-privacy-protections
Dep,
While I am not the most advanced on privacy and security, I wish to comment on the article.
First, thank you for bringing this to the sites’ attention.
Second, While the CEO is still saying that they maintain control, System 1 plays a major part. As such it is only a matter of time before control is or will be lost. If it were not for my following points, I would not hesitate but maybe you will see why.
Third, what is said is often done for damage control. How many have jumped because of the news of this acquasition? Maybe they took a bigger hit than expected.
Fourth, when I read it, I almost felt I was reading a pleading statement. It extolled the company and why it should be maintained, yet they waited this long to produce such a statement?
Fifth, the time and silence before, during, and after the purchase tells me that they were not to interested in making a statement. What were the details?
Sixth, trusting a company, that makes a profit on individual’s data, is not something I care for, regardless of what they claim. What is going on behind the scene?
These are just my thoughts.
Hello there,
does anyone know why Swisscows does not to work?
I have changed my settings regarding fingerpriting as suggested by Sven in his guide. Could that be the issue?
Thanks a lot and great site by the way
Adam
Hey Adam,
I am not sure why, exactly. I have set mine up as this site says and it works. Occassionally I will need to refresh a page but it seems to work.
Have you deleted the cookies? That is my one thought. Maybe having a little more description about what it is doing may give us some insight.
Great list Sven. A great guide for those looking to start to #degoogle. I’m hoping you’ll
consider adding the [www.Presearch.org] project to your list as an alternative search engine. With Presearch users searches are not tracked and they are rewarded with a cryptocurrency token called PRE for each search. The tokens are then sold to advertisers who pay for ads with PRE.
Just heard (8Dec2019) about stealth/hidden Startpage ownership change to an Ad/analytics firm.
I’ve had fishy problems in UK using Anonymous searches from late Oct2019, in that Anonymous only works if Server=US in settings.
Asked SP support if they’d been nobbled by some state security; got replies but no better than waffle…and no mention of mngmt change.
So probably not an accident or a bug. Quite likely a deliberate change in order to nudge Anon queries to the US for potential analysis.
Looks like another big lie.
I’m aware that you can’t really trust anything anywhere for long….and sometimes those who appear most honest and trustworthy are actually confidence tricksters/dirty rats.
Thanks, Mr Startpage founder. You got me….well done.
I am using [https://serulo.com]
just simple no ads and when ever I search it will show relevant result.. 🙂
Hi,
I don’t like the services / products we use as focused in a users privacy saying or using in their policy terms words like these-
Information We May Collect
Information We May Share
That, MAY = as a gates hinge point swinging wide open to me.
Meaning it’s all of your information / by not using the terms as the wording like – ‘We COLLECT’ or ‘Don’t COLLECT’ to be clearly understandable in a specific relationship to your personal (surrender info) and the device meta-data exhaust.
Leaves what you’ve just read about it’s policy as an indecisive understanding given by the product to the user base.
It’s alarming they already can see a lot of identifiable meta-data information from your device used, that in turn may be used to identifying you.
***- If a policy states, information we don’t collect and then go on to, since we don’t collect any users information there is no information about you we could share if ever asked too…
Policies must clearly inform to any of the other ways to where the product used may be of questionable concerns to your privacy that’s detailed enough giving a relational understanding to your device and it’s data using the product.
Re Swisscows
apart from the hilarious name… interesting approach
BUT – search results really leave a lot to be desired.
running the same searches on Swisscows misses really key results, esp if you’re researching something a little more ‘fringe’ or obscure, compared to for example startpage who finds the relevant info immediately!
Swisscows is a family friendly search engine so safe search is always on, that’s why *certain* terms give no result. It also uses Bing as source. Try Yippy as it also uses Bing, is uncensored and has some sort of semantic map like Swisscows.
Startpage, on the other hand, uses Google which explains why you get different results. Gibiru also uses Google but provides uncensored results.
I read somewhere that Yippy has a family/sex material-type filter. I wrote Yippy twice trying to get info, make suggestions, etc., and never got an answer. I decided to check the filter issue by typing in some sex-related term and got 75 million results. So, if there’s a filter it doesn’t work, which is fine with me because I don’t like censorship. If there’s any filter anywhere it should be a setting controlled by the user.
Private.sh is missing from the list, https://private.sh/
It’s not rightly and solely a search engine is it?
It derives a search engine meaning by using –
Private.sh is a joint venture between Private Internet Access and GigaBlast.
Private Internet Access is an award winning VPN service and has a proven no log policy.
GigaBlast.com is a search provider focused on privacy and one of only a handful of search engines in the US that maintains its own index of over a billion pages.
NOTHING stated about Private.sh itself and with no PP or TOS on it’s landing page.
Maybe a website (front-end) running with the mentioned services, is of what good? Just looks like one more link in a web connection that makes it a party line of information you share.
Duck is owned by Google. How can it still be private?
No, DDG is not owned by Google.
What about privacy browser by soren? I have never heard any reviews i use it on occassion their default is now startpage but it used to be searX. So my question is which privacy browser is the one to use NOW?
Infinity search could be a good one for me as it’s clean appearance visually is as clean as it’s privacy policy reads logically to me.
https://infinitysearch.ai/privacy
Gigablast catches my notice too – open source search, is one of a handful of search engines in the United States that maintains its own searchable index of over a billion pages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigablast
Thanks to Restorer Nov. 18 th post in another topic… Hope you’ll take a closer look ; )
Excuse my bad, didn’t see your question was browser specific.
Then for androids I’ve tried this one.
https:// tenta.com
The ultimate private crypto browser.
Answered to a reader in their comment of my impression in first findings. Really of my first impressions I hardly used it as I note I didn’t pay for the PRO.
https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/#comment-58687
Can’t say if there’s a % of hype to featues or its a good offering but expensive.
Androids not my perfered way of surfing with a destop feet away, wireless key board, 55″ tv/monitor and a recliner.
Hope the tenta browser is of interest, free side of it with your own decidated VPN. Then you’d have the VPNs coverage on more devices and platforms choices paying for a subscription in that purpose.
Hi , you Sven change that in private offers safe search engines : Searx start page
Do change that , so many days ago I use app start page and that be down and malware my smartphone and so from browser , very be careful .
Good luck .
Hi bic sorry to hear your misfortune.
If I follow you right, both searx and startpage are bad. Was it by some interaction on your part using either one? Say clinking a link on a page or opening a malicious site from a search done?
Maybe just using the startpage app (don’t see searx has one) in your meaning. Trying to understand correctly.
.
I think security software is needed on your device. If android try the emsisoft mobile security for it offers Real time protection. Added layer in an adblocker functions and protections try AdGuard for androids from it’s own site download.
*That to may be a source of problems in where you get the apps.
Good luck.
Hi , I use apk pure app is that safe ?
According to Google play store scandal about malware I use that , what is your idea ?
Beings it deals with software (apps) that cost money but have been doctored and/or cracked more or less to be the full and Pro versions – – – NO that’s not ideal…
You’d get far less malware going with G play.
Your at the other end of things where malware thrives.
F-Droid is a repository of clean app (apk’s).
Infinity search could be a good one for me as it’s clean appearance visually is as clean as it’s privacy policy reads logically.
https://infinity search.ai/privacy . Gigablast catches notice too – open source search, is one of a handful of search engines in the United States that maintains its own searchable index of over a billion pages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigablast
H Hope you’ll take a look ; )
Hello Sven,
Shame on StartPage !
https://restoreprivacy.com/startpage-system1-privacy-one-group/
Thanks for the article – needed for sure as lots of people involved in using this search engine are feeling unsure and uneasy now of it’s privacy stance with this new partnership/ownership being aired.
–
In the name of advertisement or under it’s label, “a “data science” company that specializes in targeted advertising.”
Wow has StartPage changed, as the privacy focused-mission of StartPage is tainted if nonexistence of their users base today with an partnered business that can quickly scale more revenue from the StartPage users.
SIMPLY sounds like GREED!
–
– Data science (ever herd of it – NO), is StartPage now in need of special weaponize intelligence gathering in a targeted advertising use on it’s platform.
*Data science is the same concept as data mining and big data: “use the most powerful hardware, the most powerful programming systems, and the most efficient algorithms to solve problems”. It employs techniques and theories drawn from many fields within the context of mathematics, statistics, computer science, and information science. As a multi-disciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_science
–
Data collection and advertising go hand-in-hand – BUT these should NOT be used for people that use services geared in/on/to and of the users privacy…
– – – If we block the AD’s are we better off still using StartPage over another yet?
* AdGuard cuts the advertising off as well as trackers from your websites visited and apps installed to a system you run.
Besides being on top in it’s field AdGuard offers advanced tool sets to engage further settings for user.
Data science is not the same thing as data mining. It can include data mining, but does not have to and they are not synonyms. If you had to use Wikipedia to define data science, you probably don’t know enough to make any sort of firm pronouncement on the topic.
Dear Lewis,
Yes I don’t know shit but, logic leads me to understand in my realm.
I back up with links when related and landmark with others.
I don’t see you helping in the privacy cause ; )
Stand-up please, other than to put someone down for their taking a stance and relaying on the facts they’ve found.
Your opinions are yours from your minds eye view of the world – not my view in it.
As far as Wikipedia –
It said “same concept” not the – ‘same thing’ – as you did note…
End results doesn’t matter then if, “extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data” is about yourself I guess.
Anything in my likeness is my right to having a say over…
That SHOULD include – be it a profiled pool of digital data generated on myself, as it’s my likeness other than an image in digital form.
A likeness so real that I could learn things about myself from it.
I TRY TO HELP, at least my RP friends – will you try?
Thank you
Well, when you’re telling people incorrect information and being very bold about it, correcting that incorrect information IS helping. It does no good to make these decisions based on incorrect facts. You don’t need to take it personally; I have no idea who you are. It’s simply a matter of making sure we’re discussing this topic with correct information.
7. Identification and Refining of Target Audiences
From Google Analytics to customer surveys, most companies will have at least one source of customer data that is being collected.
But if it isn’t used well—for instance, to identify demographics—the data isn’t useful.
The importance of data science is based on the ability to take existing data that is not necessarily useful on its own and combine it with other data points to generate insights an organization can use to learn more about its customers and audience.
https://www.simplilearn.com/why-and-how-data-science-matters-to-business-article
A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Marketing and Analytics Every Data Science Professional Must Read
https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2018/12/guide-digital-marketing-analytics/
How Data Science Helps Marketing
https://towardsdatascience.com/how-data-science-helps-marketing-d63980fcc8fa
What is data science?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-data-science
What Is Data Science?
https://www.simplilearn.com/what-is-data-science-article
The startpage and system 1 link you’ve mentioned 404s. Please check.
https://restoreprivacy.com/startpage-system1-privacy-one-group
Fixed!
Startpage have 4 cross-site trackers today. Duckduckgo have 0 cross-site trakers.
(And have to say, Restoreprivacy have 1 cross-site tracker).
I don’t trust websites that have many cross-site trackers.
The 4 cross-site trackers in Startpage I think is something new from the last months. (Not sure 100% about that). Any other here saw/experienced that??
RP uses Clicky, which helps me see where traffic is coming from, but it also anonymizes visitor IP addresses and is fully compliant with GDPR privacy protections.
Roberto
What 4 cross-site trackers are showing for startpage.com? Could you name them please?
Neither NoScript (only the main startpage.com domain), Ghostery or Privacy Badger are showing any cross-site trackers for startpage.com.
Thanks.
Here is a free tool to check security and trackers:
https://webbkoll.dataskydd.net/en
Cross-site tracking is old, the guys use Fingerprinting.
Hi,
I’we been using StartPage for some 3 years, now is time for a change, but need some clarifications.
* SearX.me is always blocked by Google, any idea how to tackle this?
* There is a new kid on the block, [https://infinitysearch.ai/] but no independent background checks available and their privacy statement is mentioning DuckDuckGo, [https://infinitysearch.ai/privacy].
Hi Sven
Going on what Alan said below, maybe we shouldn’t be to hasty to discount startpage.com or take it off your web pages.
According to privacytools.io blog on the matter, they said that “This de-listing does not necessarily mean Startpage is violating its privacy policy. We have no evidence of that.” So surely until clear evidence is found that they are violating its privacy policy, we should give it the benefit of the doubt as to using it?
The problem seems to be with startpage.com not announcing its partnership with a System1 division for such a long time, not, at the moment, with it breaching or violating its privacy policy regarding the protecting of users privacy.
Until evidence is clearly found that users privacy has been breached or violated, surely we should continue using the startpage.com service, especially as most other search engines out there also has their problems with privacy (e.g. logging IP addresses, logging user agents, being on servers in the US or servers owned by Amazon) in some way or another?
Thank you for this level-headed commentary. Startpage has been a champion in the privacy space for over a decade. It’s been a trailblazer that paved the way for many other companies in the space. Unless proven otherwise, it deserves better than to be immediately suspected of betraying its users because of a business decision it made with information that the general public does NOT have.
Hi Sven
It looks like PrivacyTools.io is withdrawing it’s support for, and de-listing, startpage.com until it clarifies its position with System1 tonight.
https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues/1409
https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/pull/1410
Can you please amend any web pages you have and please let the public who read your web pages know about this?
Thank you.
Yep, will be doing that this week.
Although there is current controversy surrounding startpage.com, let us remember that, at the time of writing, it is still being recommended by privacytools.io, so for the moment I think we should give it the benefit of the doubt and continue using it.
The same management still seem to be in place and running it.
What is the alternative private search engine(s) out there? Plus there is not too many search engines out there that offers a proxy option like startpage.com’s “Anonymous View”.
Hi Sven,
We have created another search engine that doesn’t track its users. It has several features such as:
– Integrated TradingView charts
– Instant Answers
– A sidebar allowing users to search for the same thing on other sites
Feel free to check it out at [https://infinitysearch.ai/]
Looks very interesting. Love the sidebar where you can search for the search term on many different and specific places. And it’s really fast! There is no way to integrate it in Firefox? I am way too costumed to do my searches from the address bar
https://cdn.usefathom.com/tracker.js – 13.225.38.17
https://collect.usefathom.com/collector/pageview?p=%2F&h=https%3A%2F%2…
– 54.82.251.206
Start page does add some important privacy benefits but we must realize it is a FRONT END to Google which is LYING about the contents of the web.
Check it out
[http://healthyprotocols.com/DOTNET/Working%20WEB%20Files/2_google.htm]
Hey Sven, some communities has started raising concerns about Startpage, and how its apparently now (partly) owned by an ‘advertising company’:
(Press release from Startpage): https://www.startpage.com/blog/company-updates/startpage-and-privacy-one-group/
(r/privacy reddit post): https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/di5rn3/startpage_is_now_owned_by_an_advertising_company/
I’m really hesitant to draw conclusions, is this something to be concerned about? Would really like to hear your thoughts on this.
Hi M.D. good timing. I’m looking into this right now but would agree that there are concerns. I should have this guide updated soon, but I’ll probably also get an article out on the issue.
Hey, not forgetting to mention Startpage search results have diminished over time too – as the same terms using Google’s own search engine returns more pages of results.
HOW IS IT there’s some (FILTER bubble) happens then between Googles own site engine search results and what’s being rendered/shown by Startpage???
– Startpage sometimes will show 5 or more page results .
Anyone ? ever tired clicking on the highest numbered page till there’s nothing there… (Sorry, there are no results for this search.)
– – In fact your doing real good to get two web pages of search results with Startpage in some search terms used.
– – – Then Startpage also maintains Startmail, an email service, how is it affected by this new owners news?
Great heads up – MD , Greetings : )
In regards to the server location of startpage.com. I used hypestat.com and it states it’s located in Mokelumne Hill, California, 95245, United States. In addition, IP info add-ons, also confirm this. Is it safe to assume the site is no longer hosted within the Netherlands and the data center currently resides within US jurisdiction? Verification and reassessment is needed.
Hi Beyond_the_haze,
Agreed, some Startpage company spokesperson verification needs to happen on where’s the brick-n-mortar location / domicile (permanent legal residence) of the servers are and promised to stay.
As the public’s scrutiny will only grow as it’s an important point now especially with latest news (shared by M.D.) above on Oct. 15th.
[Privacy One Group Ltd has invested in Startpage.com]
https://www.startpage.com/blog/company-updates/startpage-and-privacy-one-group/
–
One suggestion might be they used a virtual server ?
Thanks
I primarily use DDG because Google’s search algorithm’s are biased and have been shown to be used to artificially influence people’s thinking, which means that SP will be subject to the same problems as Google in this respect. DDG is also trying to develop its own search protocols so that, one day, maybe we can have another alternative besides Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex.
Great article, thanks for sharing. Bookmarked, of course
Excellent list!!
Wake up! DuckDuckgo is NOT! a privacy search engine!
1. DuckDuckGo saves search histories, although it claims that such saving is “non-personal” …
2. Gabriel Weinberg previously collected users data and sold this data to make money. In 2006, Weinberg sold The Names Database—an early social network—to Classmates.com for $10 million and decided to start this “DuckDuckgo”.
3. DuckDuckGo markets itself as a “Privacy-Centric Search Engine”, but it seems to have a strong relationship with Yandex (Kremlin – KGB state Search & Hunt company). This KGB Search Engine, which provides private information to the state and secret services, is the “STRONG BUSINESS PARTNER” of DuckDuckgo??? )))) Yandex was given special access to Facebook users’ personal data and has also been accused of funneling information to the Kremlin. Russia is a country where dozens of journalists were murdered last years!
See what DuckDuckgo says about this: “Yandex is one of many sources we use to provide search results. We primarily use Yandex when you have enabled the Russia region or when you perform searches in Russian. We don’t share any personal information with these sources.”
4. DuckDuckgo is also known by website admins as the spammer, there are special htaccess rules to block DuckDucko.
I do not trust this search engine, this site and its creator have a hidden agenda! Hidden business partners!
Yes, there are issues with DDG, as pointed out above. At this point there aren’t too many sources for search results: Google, Bing, Yandex, and I guess Mojeek…
Didn’t you say that MetaGer uses its own crawler in addition to the results from the Big Guys?
And what does that even mean? What would be the point of running your own crawler if you are getting the same results simultaneously, but better, from the other engines?
It primarily relies on the “Big Guys” for search results.
Yes, so I thought…surely the Big Guys have way better crawlers/indices than MetaGer’s own.
…but what I’m trying to say, Sven, is that there’s gotta be some good reason for MetaGer to want to supplement with their own… Like, what value is there in it; because wouldn’t it be more or less redundant and a waste of their limited resources? Am I missing something?
The one possible reason I could think of is if their goal is to gradually shed away the big engines, as their own crawler improves and starts making them obsolete, as far as MetaGer’s viability (and hypothetically, potential rise as a serious competitor) is concerned. Partly on that notion–they being one of the only engines covered here to try to maintain some degree of structural independence–have I chosen them as one of my picks among your many good recommendations.
Hello Jack the Ripper,
{…but what I’m trying to say, Sven, is that there’s gotta be some good reason for MetaGer to want to supplement with their own… Like, what value is there in it; because wouldn’t it be more or less redundant and a waste of their limited resources? Am I missing something?}
https://www.gigablast.com/blog.html
Maybe this guy brings up good points you’ll find your answers with.
– A lot of power in the hands of a few.
– Meta search engine has disappeared from the search ecosystem.
Greetings
Hi Boris Nikolski,
I like the way you look at this, but for #3 and #4 above you’d be more of hit with links to where this is seen.
When a comment/statement is given with proof (links) it’s a record in a sense with landmarks of that claim.
–
This Russian thing with it’s government and headquartered software or services out of there. Then those developed by Russian citizens aboard – is there more thought of danger and privacy concerns
THAN
that of the US with the same hard look here.
–
Thomas Vladimerovich Mendelson AUGUST 7, 2019
comment on https://restoreprivacy.com/antivirus-privacy/#comments
would have us think so, and wasn’t it in the media that the US department of (something) advised all government agencies to stop using Kaspersky products.
I know this is focused on A/V ‘s, but it’s something to know about any thing you’d use where digital data could be generated and trapped.
–
Are Anti-Malware products Uploading Your Private Data?
by mirimir (gpg key 0x17C2E43E) on July 14th, 2017
https://www.ivpn.net/blog/are-anti-malware-products-uploading-your-private-data
[I’ve looked at data uploading by seven anti-malware products. I used a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64-bit) VirtualBox VM for each product. I declined all data-sharing options during installation. After updating the products threat database, I did a full system scan, enabled all data-sharing options, and scanned again. The Windows 7 VMs reached the Internet through a pfSense VPN-gateway VM, and I captured packets during scans using the utility in the pfSense WebGUI. Using Wireshark, I analyzed TCP conversations in each capture file.]
–
Maybe it’s time for a hard look at how these digital ends can be enlisted by it’s government and justice system to assist them or friendly nations against us – even after having paid our money to use whatever.
@my last comment:
The UK as well there in a ‘hard look’, as all the other “Five Eyes” down the ladder in the 9 Eyes, 14 Eyes, and other “third parties” too of this extensive alliance chain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement#9_Eyes,_14_Eyes,_and_other_“third_parties”
[MUST BE – why most of the internet’s traffic is routed thru the US.]
–
(Same wikiprdia page), under Controversy:
During the 2013 NSA leaks Internet spying scandal, the surveillance agencies of the “Five Eyes” have been accused of intentionally spying on one another’s citizens and willingly sharing the collected information with each other, allegedly circumventing laws preventing each agency from spying on its own citizens.
–
So to me it boils down to what side your located on, and how versed in it all you are. Words are that without actions to enforcement.
So if there are say two side here, who is policing the police of the two sides – where’s the laws to govern it all for their citizens here !
As mankind advances in life with technology we loose our borders, that it opens up our lands and people to be victims of lawless enforceable actions as it mostly stands now.
– Just as we join alliances in time of wars, friendly nations need to join and sponsor a global eninity’s foundation of personal citizen user internet privacy laws. As we keep budgets for troops and war machinery – so to a nation needs to budget for global internet defense with regards it applies to the national security and global individual privacy as understood in a global user internet privacy laws.
This global entity of some form would be a governing body as a foundation such as NATO, grounded on/with/of global personal user internet privacy laws that has some teeth enforcement’s action.
Startpage is definetely the best, though I don’t like that it opens search results in a new tab and I can’t change the settings because I don’t keep cookies. Any suggestions?
Hey tobias,
On – – “I can’t change the settings because I don’t keep cookies.”
Try adjusting StartPage settings as you like and then generate an URL of them – using it as your homepage address (in settings) of your browser.
-Another way is take that StartPage settings generated URL and enter it in browser address going to it (open – – then bookmark it to your browser , or create a shortcut on the desktop for it.
Depends on the system set-up or used, maybe dragging either one to your taskbar for fast access.
Just how I’d side-step the no’cookie’ policy of yours.
** PS: it’s another reason ‘installed AdGuard (ad blocker) is my fav on my own cookie policy of it advanced ‘Stealth Mode’ settings under ‘TRACKING Methods’, I set 1st party to 12 minutes for sites I’ll usually login and 0 minutes for all 3rd party cookies.
Hello Hard Sell,
Thank you very much for the answer. I thought of the URL solution but I decided to continue using the cookie auto-delete addon with a whitelist as opposed to blocking cookies through about:config. The downside is I have one more addon, but it’s just more practical.
Hi tobias,
I hate extensions for browsers and run them as little as possible. The policies of the two (browser –
extension) can vary greatly from each other on privacy.
Then, I’m not one who likes to mess with the about:config settings either.
Glad you’ve found an answer.
Opening a search result in a new tab is one of the reasons I like Startpage. With other search engines, I have to hold down the Control key while clicking a search result to open it in a new tab. Opening a search result in a new tab keeps your search results available for further viewing. @Startpage…don’t change the new tab functionality.
I also discovered the MetaGer does the same thing as Startpage; search results are opened in a new tab.
>”With other search engines, I have to hold down the Control key while clicking a search result to open it in a new tab.”
Just FYI, you can use middle mouse button (the scrollwheel) to open links in the new tab via mouse on *any* search engine. Unless, you mean that you don’t want to press any other buttons apart from left mouse click when opening things in new tabs, then your point is completely valid and justified.
seenami.com aggregates top search engines and websites for simultaneous browsing and searching.
I love articles like this anything that helps people gain their privacy back, I just don’t understand how StartPage is number one. It’s great that StartPage protects our privacy as it feeds us Google search results, but my research has shown that Google searches are heavily filtered, even Google themselves have admitted this. Google has also been proven to alter search results to sway political views. StartPage pays google to use their search engine it says so on their site, we as users have no idea what the deal between Google and StartPage is.
Yes, this is a very good point with using Google results: active censorship and bias. And it looks like this is becoming a bigger issue as time goes on.
This is true. But I think this list is more of the ratings on how each search engine handles privacy, and not where it gets their results for search queries for. So it is sort of justified that StartPage is #1 in privacy spec, as opposed to, let’s say, DuckDuckGo (#6 on the list). While DuckDuckGo serves more ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ results that have no bias, it has raised some concerns in privacy. To put a few examples:
What is no search queries saved (StartPage) vs. Search queries saved permanently (DuckDuckGo) .
What is Netherlands jurisdiction (StartPage) vs. Five Eyes – United States jurisdiction (DuckDuckGo).
What is audited search engine (StartPage) vs. A search engine without audit (DuckDuckGo).
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely despise manipulation of search results and I think that is not acceptable. But from privacy standpoint, StartPage handles privacy better than other rival, privacy-oriented search engines, hence it is rated #1 on the list, albeit with results from Google.
You make some good points Matt.
But remember, the reason that start page is rated number one on this page is not because it’s rated number one in terms of privacy. It was simply listing a number of different search engines as a list. If you read the top of the article it says the following:
“ Note: This list is not necessarily in rank order. Choose the best search engine for you based on your own threat model and unique needs.”
I’m going to completely revise and update this guide soon. The fact that Startpage is now owned by System1 changes everything…
Very new to all this so looking for Private Search and read your post. Thought I would look at the results for my sports club page that has features in Google results for 10 years on the various suggested alternatives as a reference. STARTPAGE doesnt show for my keywords, wont even show the domain if I search for the full domain name. How can STARTPAGE possibly be using Google results? Knocked my confidence in this as a recommendation. Thanks
Hi harpoonlouis. You should email Startpage.com Support with details, including the name of the sports club and its domain address, so they can look into this. Here’s the email address: Support@Startpage.com
I’ve already emailed Startpage about this issue awhile ago and it still persists. The search results that Startpage serves up are different than what you get with Google, which doesn’t make sense if Startpage is using Google for search results.
Qwant is another private search engine that is based in France and primarily sources search results from Bing”
I’m finding the results to be related, but with many results not on bing or google.
About Startpage: my device is in Europe, I’ve chosen in StartPage’s options to use EU servers:
“Only connect to servers that are : EU servers”
and yet StartPage connects to 216.218.239.199 (Hurricane Electric LLC located in the U.S.). when displaying results.
Funniest thing is that if I block above address, clean the cache and search again (same query) the results appear as previously but this time with NO connection to 216.218.239.199 (and 216.218.239.199 is indeed blocked).
So, besides Google any healthy mind avoids, many rely on DuckDuckGo and/or on Startpage, and I’m sorry to notice that both connect to servers within the US or belonging to US companies.
Only EU-based and owned Web search engines here.
Vic, you need to save your settings. If this doesn’t work or you’re not sure about how to do this, you should email the Startpage.com Support Team: Support@Startpage.com
Liz, I’m aware of that! StartPage settings had been saved, allowed cookie, not session-only!
No, the point is that StartPage connects to US located Hurricane Electric LLC servers even when it connects as well to its own EU located servers.
It’s very easy to test. Find a tool which displays connected servers, for instance a Firefox extension named ‘SixIndicator’, and when on a StartPage with query results displayed, check SixIndicator. Besides EU located servers you’ll always have a connection to Hurricane Electric LLC servers. I had noted the US IPs displayed by SixIndicator, checked them out over at dnslytics.com which mentioned they were Hurricane Electric LLC servers. I copied there the Hurricane Electric LLC concerned IP ranges, blocked them with an application called PeerBlock, returned to StartPage and then either two things : either StartPage doesn’t open, either it opens but the results are blocked. Check PeerBlock which shows that indeed the Hurricane Electric LLC connections have been blocked. Unblock them, restart Startpage and of course no issue.
The fact is that StartPage systematically connects to Hurricane Electric LLC, even if the user has chosen EU servers (with the cookie!).
If I use the excellent Qwant, or searX (beware nevertheless of its instance as mentioned in the article), also MetaGer and SwissCows (which I discovered in this article) … no connection outside the EU :=)
Side-note : how sad that in 2019 we’ve come to a situation where connections to the USA are tied to privacy issues. I’m European and I love America where I’ve spent my childhood… and seeing what’s becoming of this country doesn’t delight me.
Hi Vic. You should email the Startpage.com Tech Team so they can investigate: Support@Startpage.com
Hi Vic.
I contacted the Startpage.com Technical Team. They are asking that you contact them and send screen shots showing this issue, if possible.
Here is the email address: Support@Startpage.com
They have looked into this, but aren’t seeing this on their end. If you could write in, it would be very helpful. Thanks!
Hi Liz,
Very nice of you to have contacted the Startpage.com technical Team.
I’ve followed their advice which was yours, that is to contact the team directly. Done, with full explanations and screenshots.
I’ll of course report here their reply, that pertinent to my problematic, as soon as I’m informed.
We’ll see. This is not dramatic and is not an assault on a company but the expression of a surprise. I see no reason for a server connected out of the EU to be requested when the user has opted for ‘Only EU servers’.
Hi Liz, and hi to all those who may read this,
As I had said I’d report here Startpage’s answer to my request, he it is.
My email to Startpage : https://funkyimg.com/i/2Umpr.jpg
Startpage’s answer to my email : [link removed -Sven]
Odd.
English is not my mother-tongue so I’d appreciate if you or anyone does consider my email as understandable and if one can understand how in the world Startpage has understood it when answering what they answered.
Amazing (generic terminology).
Hey Vic, I removed the screenshot you posted of the support staff’s email, out of respect for the employee’s privacy…
Hi Sven,
I don’t see in which way an employee’s privacy is concerned when publishing that employee’s company email content includes no data pertinent to confidentiality, unless to consider that the employee name (or pseudonym more likely) is confidential. Here we have a Startpage employee which obviously doesn’t understand a user’s clear comment which is why I posted it.
But never mind. I’m still in contact with that employee which obviously knows little of the computing environment, which is not a plague when one is not in charge of users’ feedback. If I ever get that employee to understand the basics and have her last word regarding my first question, then I’ll summarize it here.
I am aware that restoreprivacy.com is not a showcase of a user’s dialogs with a third-party, and perhaps I should have postponed my comments until the issue was fully closed with StartPage. This is what i’ll do from now on.
Thanks for your contribution to a better WWW (making it less a Wild Wild Web).
Hey Vic, that sounds good, thanks for the update.
For the sake of truth : I’ve just returned to startpage.com after having abandoned it ever since my above comments and noticed that the issue I had mentioned seems to have vanished : as far as I can tell all connections established by startpage.com are now with EU located servers only.
Interesting. Thanks for the update.
Try directly on https: eu.startpage.com no trackers on this but other problematic implementations.
Hello Sven,
I have used a search engine in Switzerland for many years, https://etools.ch/ and have been very happy with its’ search capabilities.
I’ve self hosted my own VPN for general browsing and used nailed down IPSec vpn via USG (Unified Security Gateway) devices between my homes in the past. These days I’ve not needed much in the way of ‘accessories’ to bolster security or privacy of my internet activities.
I happened on epic privacy browser ( https://www.epicbrowser.com/ ) which covered my basic web browsing concerns.
The reviews you write along with reader comments have been very much appreciated here and I will perhaps be patronizing one or more of the services you’ve covered across your whole site — question is, do you know if your commission linkages will survive properly if I use this browser with it’s built-in VPN active and chromium hardening?
I have no particular problem installing another browser to facilitate proper commission earning, but this is/has been my sole browser for a couple years and will take the effort on my part to pick and install another browser.
Regards,
JN
Hi Johnny, regarding commissions when using Epic, not sure to be honest, the only affiliates for the site are a handful of VPNs, nothing else. Thanks for the consideration.
Hi Sven, in hindsight I realized that was somewhat a loaded question, sorry about that. I checked a few links here and things appear to hand off okay.
It’s some 15-20 years since I’ve used affiliate type linkages in my own web presence portfolio — a bit frail at time back then.
In any event, I’ll arrange to do the click through(s) and transaction(s) with something more generic for good measure.
Thanks,
JN
All good Johnny, thanks, I appreciate your support.
etools.ch cookies:
First-party cookies (1)
http://www.etools.ch JSESSIONID 7351613829D68C469CEE… session
Third-party cookies (3)
.adnxs.com uuid2 7378438639825146434 2020-03-21 07:37:42Z
xtraa-secure.reviveservers.com OAID 01000111010001000101… 2020-12-21 07:37:42Z
xtraa-secure.reviveservers.com OAGEO 2%7CFR%7CEU%7C1%7C%7… session
Sven – Could you include in the part about duckduckgo that it has a .onion instance? Here is the address: [http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion/] (but obviously if you want to check on your own for it you can go to duckduckgo and type in “duckduckgo .onion” and they’ll have a link)
Thanks for the thorough analysis, by the way. I love reading your articles.
Sven, a nice comprehensive guide with a good insight into alternatives.
Startpage works great here especially when it’s jurisdiction is in the EU – GDPR 😉
I wonder how Startpage manages to display Google WErbung [Ads] and still be data secure? You have to use code from Google, how can Startpage be data-secure and not pass any data on to Google?
Hi Lena. Here are Startpage.com Knowledgebase articles that should help with your question:
https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/180/0/how-can-startpage-be-free-how-do-you-make-money
https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/159/0/do-you-share-my-ip-address-with-google
If you need additional information, feel free to email the Startpage.com Support Team: Support@Startpage.com
I didn’t see “https://search.privacytools.io” mentioned. Alot of useful settings/options. As well as a huge selection of engines.
That’s just a public instance of Searx. As explained above, I’m hesitant to recommend (third-party) public instances when people could instead use Searx.me.
Hi, I am building a privacy friendly search engine (yase.pw) and I would love to receive some advice / suggestions from this community. Hope to hear from you 🙂
Hello, I checked out Yase [https://yase.pw] but it looks like it’s not yet available:
“Thank you for participating in our beta program. We will be launching later this year.”
I switched to Duck Duck Go recently, and got a “Google error” on a search. After looking up same, turned out Duck Duck Go is Google’s.
I’m not sure what you mean by that, DDG is a separate company and not owned or affiliated with Google.
DDG and Qwant, are not native Search engines, since they don’t do their own crawling of the all the internet! First of all they get their results from Bing (as all of them have admitted openly). Secondly, they place persistent cookies on your device needlessly, when they could have provided results without cookies like ‘Cuil’ type model e.g. with StartPage. and MeekD.com
Good to know Dmina, thanks.
Whoa, wait a minute!
This is yet another case where sources and links should have been given in support of someone’s statement.
I retract what I had thought and said earlier especially regarding DDG.
–
Overview:
“DuckDuckGo’s results are a compilation of “over 400” sources, including Yahoo! Search BOSS; Wolfram Alpha; Bing; its own Web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); and others. It also uses data from crowdsourced sites, including Wikipedia, to populate “Zero-click Info” boxes – grey boxes above the results that display topic summaries and related topics.
.
DuckDuckGo positions itself as a search engine that puts privacy first and as such it does not store IP addresses, does not log user information, and uses cookies only when required. Gabriel Weinberg, creator of DuckDuckGo, states: “By default, DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. That is our privacy policy in a nutshell.” However, they do maintain logs of all search terms used.
.
Weinberg has refined the quality of his search engine results by deleting search results for companies he believes are content mills, such as Demand Media’s eHow, which publishes 4000 articles per day produced by paid freelance writers, which Weinberg says is “low-quality content designed specifically to rank highly in Google’s search index”. DuckDuckGo also filters pages with substantial advertising .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo
–
Although I’m not a fan of DDG, lets have the facts represented correctly…
Beings the company is based in Paoli, Pennsylvania, in Greater Philadelphia, – that’s in the USA. Does this present risks ?
+ not profiling its users and by showing all users the same search results for a given search term.
+ has its own Web crawler (the DuckDuckBot).
+ does not collect or share personal information.
+ does not store IP addresses.
+ / – some of DuckDuckGo’s source code is free software hosted at GitHub under the Apache 2.0 License, but the core is proprietary.
– uses cookies only when required.
– they do maintain logs of all search terms used.
They need to investigate that, Vic. Please email the Tech Team: Support@Startpage.com
StartPage . com is posting this on my selected settings specific to StartPage in which I had long ago made a URL generated containing those chosen setting.
“Coming in 228 days: New look. Improved performance. Click here to learn more. – https://www.startpage.com/” SCROLL down – I thought we went through this already with it’s end of 2018 facelift?
–
Anyway this was my old URL I’ve used for years- https://classic.startpage.com/do/mypage.pl?prf=02e0dcd418ab5f4f36f1b07eac081f75
SEE HOW THEY BROKE IT – this renders without the StartPage logo and messed up like it doesn’t know the browser used – etc…
Clicking on an item from a search term renders the page like always logo, pictures and structured like pages today should (I use AdGuard so no ads).
– And this URL I just just made with my preferred settings- https://www.startpage.com/do/mypage.pl?prfe=36c84513558a2d34bf0d89ea505333ad1aad15df09559e992539451aae98636856c1611f454f1437b4dc49dd1316857cd598b949d91446c9
See what I mean the SP logo is there with the ‘Air’ theme I liked so muck before – what’s going on with StartPage?
As I recall every page URL I’d made before with like settings the URL was different, now with a set of chosen settings maybe it’s universal for everyone?
Were they tracking people’s self/settings generated URL’s before?
Strange to mess with something that wasn’t broken in the first place but now evidently is of my old generated URL.
Comments – anyone noticed this as well?
[muck was meant to be much – in my above comment.]
Maybe with “guest” comment and offered link is a possible answer = JavaScript usage changed.
The link states this in part “Without JavaScript, many proxied websites simply no longer work, or look strange.”
– My point up in my above comment is not about a webpage that any SP search would give but, using my earliest generated StartPage URL in my chosen browsers – aka known as ‘MyPage’. [Preferences of adjustable settings in StartPage your able to tick/untick – that have changed over time / some gone today.] ((Click on both – to see))
– My earliest generated StartPage URL may not be comparable with how SP delivers JavaScript now, or it’s lost to render initial page correctly in some settings of the earlier generated URL that are not offered in SP settings page now?
–
Back in Nov. 2018 with the StartPage’s facelift – I never could get my earliest generated StartPage URL to utilize the Anonymous View link offered that replaced their ‘proxy link’.
Scroll down to my mentions below of this and other things-
Hard Sell NOVEMBER 1, 2018
Hard Sell NOVEMBER 17, 2018
Hard Sell DECEMBER 20, 2018
Go figure, today both ‘MyPage’ URL’s worked with only the Anonymous View choice being messed up.
Definitely StartPage needs to put more work in the Anonymous View proxy feature…
Could you take a critical look at StartPage’s Anonymous View proxy and determine if its really able to protect you from browser fingerprinting? They talk about it [url=https://www.startpage.com/en/search/proxy-help.html?t=default]here.[/url]
Specifically where they mention Javascript:
[quote]Instead of disabling JavaScript, the Startpage.com Proxy uses advanced, unique technology to allow almost all JavaScript, while rewriting and “redefining” JavaScript primitives to protect your privacy.[/quote] (StartPage).
Remember to read the direct source I cited instead of relying on me for accuracy.
Yep, I’ll check it out for the next update to this guide (soon).
@ guest,
First, it’s not your mention or your question in general that I find troubling within what’s inferred on the StartPage link. I don’t mean to shoot the messenger – it’s a good find and appreciated : )
https://www.startpage.com/en/search/proxy-help.html?t=default
.
“”Here’s why the Startpage.com Proxy is different — and often much safer than a VPN. – This is often much safer than even a VPN, blocking a multitude of “browser fingerprinting” and “device fingerprinting” tracking techniques – which VPNs can’t do.””
– Troubling part is claiming to be much safer than even a VPN ; (
Apples to Oranges comparative I’d say…
That their shape is close to round as the only aspect where they are close, one blocks and one encrypts furthers distinguishes this gap.
.
Fingerprinting is an invisible method of tracking you, a replacement for cookies from days gone by, now instead of leaving something on your device – it’s a method that was developed in modern web of extracting info from your device that’s extremely effective.
https://restoreprivacy.com/browser-fingerprinting/
.
IT’S TRUE A BEST IN CLASS VPN won’t block fingerprinting techniques (today), but, a (niche) ‘Anonymous View proxy’ can’t replace the best in class VPN features either.
– The Best VPN’s marketed today handle DNS requested in house for their users benefits.
A users device can leak data and information not limited to IP address, DNS and WebRTC – nor from just only the browsers END of a device.
Once data traffic is inside the encrypted VPN tunnel it’s safe. How the browser (itself) interacts in device/system info on the web is not and being totally a different thing than a VPN alone can address.
.
@There is always a chance that your VPN connection drops, the encrypted VPN Tunnel is lost, and your ISP can once again view and analyze your transmitted data traffic – along with the present abuse in some websites use of fingerprint tracking.
BUT, very Good paid for VPN’s have a KILL SWITCH for a connections loss, and handles most of these leaks while running installed on a device / other than the fingerprinting part.
.
1st. I don’t know of a best practical substitute outside of a devices realm for a top rated, trusted and vetted installed VPN client and it’s service.
A good installed VPN client on a device will secure and encrypt all of the data traffic between your device and the VPN server. NOT just the traffic going through your browser – in which the StartPage proxy link only draws it’s focused attention to and of searching / surfing related specifically…
– StartPage seems only to address fingerprinting with ‘JavaScript’ by
an unique technology – nothing with regards to the canvas element.
A part of HTML5 that allows for dynamic, scriptable rendering of 2D shapes and bitmap images.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_element
–
Maybe StartPage should promote it’s (niche) ‘Anonymous View proxy’ in combo / tandem with a highly rated VPN service – as apposed to using it without any usage of one – and sounding as it’s proxy is superior over anything that exists for the ability to block some fingerprinting techniques.
EX: VPN, Browser-Extensions, Ad blocker, StartPage>Proxy, etc…
.
Then StartPage isn’t going to suggest that a user needs the multi-prong approach going online and/or searching-surfing related to the web.
Sven fills the gap with his knowledge:
https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn
https://restoreprivacy.com/free-vpn/
https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/
https://restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine/
https://restoreprivacy.com/ad-blocker/
https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-email/
*Redundancy only becomes the problem when it impacts a systems performance, – locate the offender and change it out with something else less resource hungry.
– It Begs to ask this question – why StartPage’s Anonymous View proxy is not the default standard used for all returned results, will we see StartPage moving to a user cost model in the future?
Startpage.com reached their latest record (28-day average) daily direct queries of 5.7 million on 2 February 2015 – over 4 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startpage.com
Searx.me is considered your own instance, right?
Hey see – jack MAY 12, 2018 comment below where it mentions searx as one of the few he’d looked into and possibly answers – in part to your question.
It’s towards the end of jack’s comment…
I ran across mention of ‘Sarchy’ search engine.
Via > Alternatives to Google Products – the Complete List > Agnel Vishal MARCH 16, 2019.
DOES IT HAVE MERIT AS one of the Private Search Engines?
Sarchy is an intriguing faceted search engine (with RSS saved search) based on the open source (rather old) YaCy search engine and developped by Agnel Vishal, a developper from Chennai in the Tamil Nadu region of India.
Sarchy has been detected by one of the best French monitoring specialists, Christophe Deschamps and relayed by Serge Courrier of RSS Circus, another French monitoring specialist.
–
Sarchy is not really a newcomer. It is based on the open source search engine YaCy, which is already 8 years old.
YaCy is a distributed peer-to-peer search engine written by a team of German developers. (That should be GOOD shouldn’t it…?)
The source code is hosted on GitHub. According to its web site, “you don’t need to install external databases or a web server, everything is already included”.
–
Some would say the YaCy implementation wasn’t impressive at the time. Maybe this implementation of YaCy will be more interesting?
According to Agnel Vishal :
– Sarchy is a fork of YaCy. YaCy does not use pagerank algorithm but Sarchy uses one. Also, Vishal says he uses social media statistics as a ranking parameter.
– Sarchy’s index is a part of Yacy P2P network, but at the same time, Sarchy makes YaCy’s index accessible as a webapp the total number of web pages in YaCy’s index is around 1,7 billion. Sarchy launched a week back (According to sited source below) and has 2,43 million webpages he plans to increase the crawl speed by 30 times within 2 to 3 weeks.
– He got 3000 USD Google cloud credits thanks to YC startup school.
– He hopes to get revenues in advertisements and donations before the cloud credits gets over. Let’s hope he will be able to obtain that or other financing in the near future.
@As Serge Courrier signals, one can integer RSS feeds. Also, there is a desktop version of Yacy.
@And, as argued by YaCy’s lead developper and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), which supported the YaCy project, this peer-to-peer search engine doesn’t monitor your search and doesn’t do targeted advertising.
–
Relevancy still an issue:
The (limited compared to competitors) content indexed is of good quality. But in the legal field, at the very least, relevancy on Sarchy remains an issue. Sarchy, contrary to Google, does not seem able to guess a query’s context. Not even know the query words synonyms, in other words Sarchy doesn’t do machine learning version of natural language processing.
For the time being, relevancy is hampered by the lack of indexed content. In the legal field, it’s suggest better relevancy oriented indexing of official, Gov’t and public institutions web sites (they have good, though free, quality content and Sarchy already indexes them or at least knows their domains).
Searches for a page/site, the crawler automatically starts crawling related pages. It keeps the index from indexing unnecessay pages. But at the same time, there is an associated spamdexing risk.
In turn, YaCy’s Twitter account explained that YaCy does link reloading to verify that the presented link actually contains the searched words to protect against spam indexes.
Of course, link reloading, content checking and a distributed architecture mean that response time is somewhat slow (4-5 seconds on an enterprise Internet connection).
– According to Vishal, in order to get faster results, the whole database is not scanned the first time a given search is done. One should try the same query 30 seconds later and may see more webpages.
– Relevancy is somewhat limited, it would be very useful to explain clearly somewhere on the home page what Sarchy’s operators are.
The simple use of quotes (” “) on Sarchy is a big bonus to relevancy.
–
Good to know :
YaCy search operators are detailed on its wiki.
http://wiki.yacy.net/index.php/En:SearchParameters
Looking at YaCy self-hosted engine presentation, using it as an alternative to Google CSE is possible.
One of the main advantage of Sarchy over YaCy’s own portal is its facets (left column in the results page) : domains, year, language …
These suggestions on how to refine your search are practical and relevant.
Also, Sarchy works. While YaCy Search is not, right now.
SOURCE: https://www.precisement.org/blog/Sarchy-A-New-Hope-in-Search.html
WHAT DO READERS THINK ???
Thanks for the info.
You can also try: http://gigablast.com/privacy
https://www.lukol.com/
https://gibiru.com/
http://yippy.com/
https://www.oscobo.com/
https://www.unbubble.eu/
https://www.wolframalpha.com/
I am currently shopping around for a new search engine, so I found this thread. I love Startpage.com, but lets be honest, it returns Google’s results. What is wrong with that? Google, even though they won’t admit it, has been caught by various outside sources censoring data. They usually have a very left slant, and they filter out information for their agendas, including political.
I don’t trust DDG; 1. they use and partner with Yahoo, which is now owned by Verizon, which has worked hard to dismantle net neutrality. 2. They partner with Amazon and ebay for adds. 3. Worst, they do save search queries. Your searches may contain your name, social security info, etc. Why do they do this? “We use aggregate, non-personal search data to improve things like misspellings.” Sure. No thanks.
What about Lookseek.com, are they good?
Hi Kan,
I agree with most you’ve said. Wished you’d linked to your facts for myself and others to see it in front of us. I’m not siding one way or the other – just some facts I’ll give and some sources.
– – Loved StartPage till their facelift.
StartPage has changed, at least to me, your in a filter bubble now it seems to where some searched ‘keywords’ only turns up a page or two in results. Going to Google returns many, many more results…
Get the address that way as I do and enter it in your fav secure browser. I’m running two on my system both with StartPage.
If your paranoid use Shadow Defender, costs $ome $ – https://www.shadowdefender.com/
Better yet apply as many of these as you care too.
https://restoreprivacy.com/simple-privacy-guide
–
In June 2017, it was announced that Yahoo and AOL had joined to become Oath, a digital and mobile media company and part of Verizon. Their now bringing Oath and Yahoo under a single privacy policy. https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/index.html
–
10 Things DuckDuckGo Can Do For You > DuckDuckGo and Privacy,
“DuckDuckGo prevents search leakage by default. Instead, when you click on a link on our site, we route (redirect) that request in such a way so that it does not send your search terms to other sites.
DuckDuckGo takes the approach to not collect any personal information. The decisions of whether and how to comply with law enforcement requests, whether and how to anonymize data, and how to best protect your information from hackers are out of our hands. Your search history is safe with us because it cannot be tied to you in any way.”
https://www.lifewire.com/duckduckgo-4029781
Looks good on paper but, can it be trusted? What is meant by ‘are out of our hands’ ?
–
DuckDuckGo is very clear in its privacy policy.
Privacy Policies have teeth in the US. The FTC has filed lawsuits after companies that violate their own advertised privacy policy. They even went after Facebook!
The way privacy laws work in the US, there are almost no privacy rules that restrict what information the companies and/or web sites can collect – except that is “IF” they have said so in their privacy policy, they then must abide by it as in what they say will not collect. Breaching one’s own privacy policy may be fraud, which is illegal. Also, violating their own privacy policy represents “unfair or deceptive acts or practices”, and the FTC is empowered to pursue anyone who engages in “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” in a US court.
–
Terms of Use – http://lookseek.com/terms.html
By visiting LookSeek.com, you agree that the laws of the state of Ney York, USA, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Conditions of Use and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and LookSeek.com or its associates.
(Where is Ney York, USA ?)
http://lookseek.com/privacy-policy.html
Privacy Policy looks to simple and the typo in the TOS with the inclusion of ‘its associates’ without saying who they are seems very amateurish of a website – I believe I’ll have to pass.
Thanks : )
Cc:@Steve Carr
I personally like Lookseek.com as my private search engine, they own there own search results not like the other so called no tracking search engines
Hi Sven,
In your next update ‘Best Private Search Engines’ would you look into this I’ve found, and it’s mentioned in StartMail’s support.
I’m referring to Startpage in general would there be any headon implications that it would be used too? By other websites after leaving Startpage.
In the Startmail support – it’s mentioning as “The canvas element is set to be invisible, so as not to disturb your browsing experience.”
Then goes on to say – “To be fully clear, we want to point out that although we use third-party frameworks like modernizr- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernizr, we do not link to external sources for these files. In most cases, websites will load resources like this from Google-hosted files to reduce their own hosting burden. A consequence of this is that data about you may be leaked as requests are made off-site. By hosting all site resources on our own servers, we prevent adversaries from retro-fitting a tracker or other means of spying that can be accomplished by modifying the remotely-hosted files. When visiting Startmail.com, you should never see a request to a domain that is not owned by us.
https://support.startmail.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/627/0/i-see-a-popup-about-a-ltcanvasgt-tag—what-does-this-mean
– So regarding the search engine of Startpage when hitting websites and servers that link to external sources (ie: Google-hosted files)clearly not of the resources on Startpage servers. The canvas element of adversaries by retro-fitting a tracker or other means of spying that can be accomplished by modifying the remotely-hosted files is possible too it not?
And as it said “Depending on your browser’s configuration, security settings, or use of browser extensions that analyse site content, the canvas element is an HTML5 element.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_element
[Canvas fingerprinting is one of a number of browser fingerprinting techniques of tracking online users that allow websites to identify and track visitors using HTML5 canvas element.]
Does this pose a privacy or security risk for people using Startpage then?
Thanks Sven
PS: I’ve noticed with Startpage new facelift that the proxy link next to every search result is gone, only an Anonymous View link offered.
[Once you click on a search result, you leave our site and our privacy protection. This is true for sponsored links, search results and other external links. Unless… you use our ” Anonymous View ” feature – shown behind the search results. This great privacy tool allows you to continue to browse in full privacy.]
Mojeek deserves a place on that list. It runs its own index to it’s not taking results from a privacy-insensitive search engine like Bing.
Mojeek DEFINITELY deserves a place in this list! Full disclosure, I work for Mojeek so know for a fact that it respects privacy.
Update coming soon 🙂
Hice una búsqueda(despacito canción) y fui a imágenes y me dijo No image results found matching: despacito cancion
Try your search again using an alternative provider:
Bing
Duck Duck Go is run by Gabriel Weinberg who has a history of selling peoples’ data.
No f*#%ing thanks!
I like Start Page for it’s URL-generator.
For those people who hate cookies in general and can pose a threat to your privacy, although StartPage’s ‘preferences’ cookie is a non-identifiable cookie and safe to accept.
StartPage has especially provided the “Generate URL” button at the bottom of the “Settings” page.
Pushing that button after your selected settings specific to StartPage, a URL containing them will be generated.
It can be generated in readable or obfuscated form.
The generated URL can now be be directly set as your homepage adding the address to your browser and/or copied and used as a bookmark across your many devices.
Or make a special URL for each device you own, I generate mine on a desktop and use them as an assigned homepage address in my devices on different browsers as well.
Using this URL all of your settings preferences will be used the next time you open your browser when the homepage is set to StartPage.
PS: I despise all browser extensions as they are privacy leaks, they can see everywhere you go on the web… Can conflict with your applied privacy model.
——————-
What about Disconnect Search ?
[https://search.disconnect.me/]
A Delaware, US based corporation with headquarters in San Francisco, California. You can reach us by mail at:
548 Market Street, #45514, San Francisco, CA 94104.
[https://disconnect.me/about]
Would that not make their VPN less favorable ? And affect the Disconnect search as well being universal to it’s location and TOS / PP aptitude.
Hey is anyone heard of the TOR browser? If So what do you think about them? They use duck duck go Search engine. Should I switch over to a different Search engine? Are the ones in Europe better than the ones in the US? Thank you in advance for any information. Hill
The Tor browser is an interesting project with pros and cons. Pros: it’s free and can provide a degree of online anonymity. Cons: it was built by the US government, it is still financed by the US government, government entities and malicious actors operate Tor exit nodes, and some consider it to be fundamentally compromised. The other drawback is that Tor is very slow, especially when compared to a good VPN.
is there anyway to enable these search engines to have an information about certain things like in google? basically the google review things, their phone number, what time they open-closed etc. or there is no way at all?
Thanks for the tips. Qwant seems very interesting. Never heard of it before. Will try it for a while and see if it can replace duckduckgo. I like ddgo but I am a bit suspicious coz it is based in USA, given that countries history with NSA…
Startpage seems nice to but is way too slow for me. But I love the fact you can sort like “last 24 hours” “Last week” and so on.
Findx that is suggested in comments is blazing fast showing results, in its beta stage at least, but the first six hits had nothing to do with what I was searching for (bitwarden), I guess they are ads?
Been using first Ixquick, now Startpage for years. Not slow.
Hi – It’s a good list of Google alternatives – In addition I can mention findx.com – (full disclosure, I’m part of team) . All the engines mentioned are meta-search engines (Qwant partly) getting results from mainly Bing, Yahoo, Google and even Yandex – At Findx we say – what’s the fun in that?
We couldn’t resist the callenge of creating an independent open source search engine, private off course – let’s just say it’s not a trivial task to copy the internet, but we did it!
You can access our beta version on http://www.findx.com – even not all results are retrieved perfectly yet, please let’s know what you think. – All the best – Brian, Findx
Does that mean it’s less susceptible to algorithm manipulation?
Just tested out a few search queries and got good results on findX. Sven, curious, what kinds of queries do you run to evaluate results quality?
The strength of public Searx instances is that there are so many of them – instead of concentrating all your search queries in one place, you can scatter them everywhere. Even if a number of bad apples exist, they’ll have to compete with 70 others and I think it provides a better defence than trusting any single entity that “looks trustworthy”.
Personally, I use the Javascript randomizer on neocities since it works within the browser and doesn’t leak queries. My only beef with it is that it doesn’t check for downed servers. You’ll have to edit them manually or wait for the page to get updated.
I’ve been switching between a few private search engines for years.
StartPage (startpage.com), Search Encrypt (searchencrypt.com) and DuckDuckGo (duckduckgo.com).
DuckDuckGo has a lot of user-friendly features, but the results still suck (from Bing). StartPage uses Google results, which I find much more useful. Search Encrypt I use as an alternative to StartPage to find other results.
I suppose which is best just comes down to user preference.
I believe that Ecosia (https://www.ecosia.org/) is also a search enging that respects privacy.
I looked at the privacy policies of search engines one by one. So I thought four of the starpage, searx, Peekier and Good Gopher were safe in terms of privacy. I was disappointed in duckduckgo. It seems that you do not know that storing a query can be specific to a person. And MetaGer was also disappointed. Because Germany has its headquarters, Germany has a secret police policy and may order secretly to ask for cooperation. To prevent hacking etc, it is said that the record is saved and later deleted. I think this is dangerous. I have no idea how long it will be stored and when it will be deleted. It is likely to be exploited in the end. So MetaGer can never be recommended. The above four are considered safe. In the case of searx, if you use your own instance and have a disadvantage connected directly to your ip, if you are a public instance An untrusted administrator can save your activity history, but it is good enough to pay attention to them.
In short, four starpage, searx, Peekier and Good Gopher are good.
Duck Duck Go only let’s you limit results by day/week/month, NOT year. So when I sent them feedback (twice), they have this Bullshot mindkontrol form that says “What Do You Like?”.
So, they are implantingin your mind the meme that they are so great and perfect that you obviously must LIKE everything about them! You MUST compliment, not complain!
Fcuk them! I went back to Startpage … I have to deal with crap everyday from the monopolist/hegemonist/mindkontrolers Google/Facebook/NSA, I don’t need the same sheet from FcukFcuk Go!
Hey.
Whatever it is, duckduckgo is so bad to save query! is a head office in the US and I can not believe it!
I do not believe such things and use secure search sites!
Watch your dirty language, may have children on this site. Terrible dirty mouth, need bar of soap quick!
Amen Gookie. Let’s think about how offensive this is to the little tots visiting us here…
Don’t forget Good Gopher – https://www.goodgopher.com/About.asp
Goodgopher has its problems in functionality in due time.
Nice article!
I read that even if Qwant is based in Europe their servers belong to a company located in Los Angeles. In this case, I am not quite sure how the law would apply regarding data privacy
More info on Qwant?
Have to agree about Startpage. It is way ahead, as far as i am concerned, of the others in terms of search results. Have tried the ducks but Startpage is just way better returning results related to the keyword entered.
I was told that Start page was connected to Google?
Jay
No, it only returns Googles resuslt without telling Google (or anyone) anything about you.
Starpage was recently acquired by a US company, I stopped using it and am looking for alternative.