This is a guide to privacy search engines, which are search engines that have a focus on protecting the privacy of its users.
Issues of search engine privacy are those that deal with user data collected by search engines. Such concerns may relate to the logging of individual search queries, browsing history, and IP addresses, as well as the placement of cookies, all of which have to do with user profiling and the collection of identifiable information on users.
Search engines claim that the collection of user data helps to provide better search results to the user, but the concerns are that they can also abuse this information, compromising the privacy of users by selling data to advertisers or making information about private searches available to various investigative bodies, governmental and otherwise.
It is common for search engines to publish privacy policies, which inform users about the types of data that is going to be collected and the purposes for which it is collected. Users rarely read them, however, and those who do won't necessarily understand what they are reading.
Most search engines do collect information about their users. This information is often stored in a database, and connected to individual users by way of a number rather than a name, as a sort of a nod toward privacy. This data may be stored for an extended length of time, often more than a year, and is used to personalize search results for users, and to target advertising. In some cases, data is collected even after the user has left the search engine site, through the use of cookies.
After performing a product search on a search engine, it is not uncommon for users to be confronted with advertisements for that product the next time they log in to their Facebook account. That is an example of targeted advertising.
Many people don't mind that a search engine is collecting data, and may even benefit from the personalization of searches. Others are annoyed, and even frightened, by the practice.
In order to meet the needs of the privacy concerned segment of the search engine market, many search engines have begun allowing users to opt out of behavioral targeting and to delete their search and browsing histories.
Other search engines have come on the market with a promise to protect the privacy of their users by not collecting data on its users, not retaining any data that might be collected after the user leaves the site, and not tracking its users. These search engines are the focus of this category.
There is a trade-off between privacy concerns and relevant results when it comes to using a privacy search engine, however. Startpage is well known for its provision of privacy searches. However, although Startpage uses Google results exclusively, search engine results from Startpage are apt to differ greatly from those received on the same query through Google. Another popular privacy search engine is DuckDuckGo, which obtains data from Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Wikipedia, and several other sources while protecting the privacy of its users. Both of these search engines are loved by many, while others insist that they get better results from Google.
The focus of this category is on search engines or metasearch engines whose business model is one of protecting the privacy of their users. Given that we are not in a position to validate or substantiate claims that are made, those who claim that user privacy is central to their business model will be deemed appropriate for this category.
Recommended Resources
DuckDuckGo is an Internet search engine that stresses the protection of the privacy of its users. It does not profile its users, or log user information, and it shows all users the same results for a given search term. A metasearch engine, DuckDuckGo generates results from more than four hundred individual sources, including Wikipedia and other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex, as well as its own spider, identified as DuckDuckBot.
https://duckduckgo.com/
Based in Berlin, Germany, Ecosia is a search engine that contributes to non-profit organizations that focus on reforestation. It also protects the privacy of users, using encrypted searches which are not stored permanently, and data is not sold to third-party advertisers. According to its privacy policy, personal profiles based on search history are not stored, nor does it use external tracking tools like Google Analytics. Its results are provided by Bing and enhanced by its own algorithms.
https://www.ecosia.org/
Co-developed by Inktomi, HotBot was launched in 1996, providing results served by the Inktomi database, as well as from the LookSmart and Open Directory Project. Acquired by Lycos in 1998, it received limited development. In 2002, it was re-launched as a multiple-option tool, giving users the choice of searching FAST, Google, Inktomi, or Teoma. After changing hands a few times, today it is a metasearch engine with a focus on user privacy, although its site was redesigned to resemble a blog.
https://www.hotbot.com/
Based in Germany, an English version of MetaGer was made available in 2013, and its source code was released on Gitlab in 2016. Hosted as a joint project of the SUMA-EV - Association for Free Access to Knowledge and the University of Hannover, MetaGer is a search engine built on more than twenty small-scale web crawlers under Meta-Ger’s control. A central focus of the search engine is privacy and data protection. Users may search the Web, pictures, or shopping.
https://metager.org/
The UK-based search engine returns results from its own index, collected by its own bots. Started in 2004 as a personal project of Marc Smith at the Sussex Innovation Centre, and operated through servers located in his bedroom, Mojeek was incorporated in 2009 and, since 2013, its servers are run from the Custodian data centres in Maidstone. The search engine promises to provide search services, with independent and unbiased search results, with no tracking.
https://www.mojeek.com/
Headquartered in France, one of the operating principles behind Qwant is the protection of users’ privacy and freedoms, promising user privacy, unbiased results, and a panoramic search. User data is not recorded and personal data is not used for advertising or other purposes. Its search utilizes Bing results as well as other data which are not acknowledged on its site. Users may search the Web, social media, images, video, shopping, or news.
https://www.qwant.com/
Startpage began as a sibling project of Ixquick, a metasearch engine that was founded in 1998 and was merged under the Startpage label in 2016. Known for its protection of users’ privacy, Startpage does not record user IP addresses and offers a stand-alone proxy service, as well as an encrypted email service, known as StartMail. Startpage does not include its own index, but uses Google results exclusively, although without Google’s personalization features.
https://www.startpage.com/
