This guide aims to be the most in-depth resource available on private search engines. For this 2022 update, we examine the best private search engines, search results censorship, and how to keep your data safe and secure when searching online.
In today’s world, search engines are a necessity to find what you’re looking for online. Unfortunately, however, there are two big problems you will likely encounter:
- Search engines that violate your privacy.
- Search engines that censor search results.
This private search engines guide will thoroughly examine both of these problems and provide you with the best reliable solutions and alternatives we can find. So let’s begin by examining the first problem with search engine privacy.
The search engine privacy problem
It is sad to say, but most of the big search engines today serve as data collection tools for advertising companies. That’s right, they collect your private data and use it to make money with targeted ads. This is a booming industry where your data ends 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
As you may know, the items you enter into a search engine can disclose highly personal information about you. Things like as medical conditions, employment status, financial information, political beliefs, and other private details. This data can be collected, stored, and linked to detailed digital profiles which can even contain your real identity. The only way to ensure that your data is safe is to keep it out of the hands of the data collectors. To do that, you need to use a private search engine.
Search engine censorship in 2022
Many people are getting fed up with online censorship, particularly when trying to find specific information that was previously available. Censorship can take many forms. With search engines today, censorship can come from filtering, manipulating, and/or blocking certain search results from appearing.
Unfortunately, the censorship problem affects many of the private search engines for these two reasons:
- Censorship flows downhill. Many of the alternative and private search engines are nothing more than private proxies that deliver the same search results from the big players. This means that when Google and Bing (Microsoft) engage in censorship and search result manipulation, so will your alternative search engine that delivers those same results.
- Alternative search engines themselves are also engaging in censorship. Recently the CEO of DuckDuckGo announced that they will “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.” We can see both sides to the question of whether or not to engage in censorship given the geopolitical events of 2022. Nonetheless, this amounts to censorship, which is what many people are trying to avoid.
An exception to this may be with independent search engines that deploy their own crawlers, such as with Mojeek, or Brave Search. Additionally, with Searx, you can select which engines it uses.
So let’s examine some alternative private search engines you can start using today.
The best private search engines
Finding the best private search engine for your needs is a subjective process. Your circumstances and goals are unique, meaning there’s no one-size-fits-all. Things to consider include:
- Where is the service based?
- Where does it get its search results?
- Can you run your own instance?
In a perfect world, a search engine would give you great results while also respecting your privacy. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect world. Any of the private search engines in this guide could be the best solution for you. But you will need to test drive the ones that look the best to you to see which is really the best fit. Before we start, there is one issue you need to be aware of:
Metasearch vs search: Most private search engines are technically metasearch engines. While a search engine crawls the internet and gathers its own results, a metasearch engine pulls its search results from other search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yandex.
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 unique needs and threat model.
Here are the best private search engines:
Searx – Open source and uncensored search engine
Jurisdiction: Not applicable (open source, not based in any one location)
Search results: Fully customizable! You can choose from a large selection of engines to display results.
Searx is an open source metasearch engine that gathers results from other search engines while simultaneously respecting your privacy. Even better, you control which search engines Searx pulls results from, as well as specifying the categories for search results.
Searx customizability comes in handy since Google has been known to block Searx requests. We haven’t seen a good solution to the problem, but you can avoid these kinds of problems by telling Searx to avoid Google (or any other source that causes problems).
Searx also allows you to run your own instance of the search engine. 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.
Be careful if you use 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 with bad intentions can 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.
Unfortunately the Searx project does not run an official public instance. They do recommend public instances that are operated by various individuals or entities. But how do you know those instances aren’t logging your search results on their server? You don’t!
For all we know, a public instance might run by an advertising company, or perhaps a domestic or foreign intel agencies, or just some creeps looking to spy on your data. The only way to be sure is to run your own instance.
https://www.searx.me (gives info about the project and list of instances)
MetaGer – An open source metasearch engine with good features
Jurisdiction: Germany
Search Results: In our tests, most Megater search results came from Bing, followed by Scopia and Infotiger, another start-up search engine based in Germany. It also displays some results from Yandex and Yahoo.
MetaGer is an open source metasearch engine based in Germany. It gets search results from Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and others, as well as having its own web crawler. This interesting project started in 1996. It is now operated by a non-profit foundation in Germany called SUMA-EV (Association for Free Access to Knowledge). I tested MetaGer for this guide and found the results to be decent, 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”
- A new News/Politics results type
MetaGer does a good job of protecting your privacy, as they explain here. MetaGer converts search requests into anonymous queries through a proxy server, which also provides the “open anonymously” viewing option with all results. The service truncates your IP addresses to protect your privacy, although they do pass along user agent info 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, 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. These ads appear at the top of the search results. However, you can get completely ad-free search results by signing up for an MetaGer membership. (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. The service 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.
https://metager.org/ (English)
https://metager.de/ (German)
Mojeek – A crawler-based search engine with more privacy
Jurisdiction: United Kingdom
Search results: Mojeek uses its own crawler and is not dependent on others!
Unlike some of the other private (meta)search engines, Mojeek is true search engine with its own crawler. According to the Mojeek blog, the service surpassed 4 billion pages indexed in 2021. If you want complete search independence from the corporate data monoliths of Google and Bing, Mojeek offers an interesting proposition.
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 located in a separate log browser information. IP addresses are not recorded, 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.
Hopefully Mojeek can continue to improve their search results and one day rival the big players.
https://www.mojeek.com/
Swisscows – A Switzerland-based private search engine
Jurisdiction: Switzerland
Search results: Bing
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. You can catch up on their privacy policy here. 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 is censoring some adult content, others may see this as a great feature, especially those who have young 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).
Website: https://swisscows.com
Qwant – A private search engine from France
Jurisdiction: France
Search results: Bing
Qwant is a private search engine based in France. Being based in Europe, it is held to data privacy protections that are much stricter than those in the United States and many other countries. Qwant promises to protect user privacy (no tracking) and keep people from getting stuck in the filter bubble.This is all good since Qwant primarily gets its search results from Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Qwant’s privacy policy has changed since we last reviewed their service. Here’s an excerpt that shows their commitment to protect your privacy:
Qwant is committed to protecting your privacy, and that’s at the heart of our philosophy. What you do with Qwant is your privacy and we don’t want to know about it. We don’t keep your search history and we don’t create an advertising profile to target you. With Qwant, you are of course entitled to the rights guaranteed by the European General Data Protection Regulation of April 27, 2016, known as the “GDPR”, but most importantly, we ensure maximum respect for the principles of data minimization and “privacy by design”, i.e., we implement design methods for our services that allow us to collect and process only the data that is strictly necessary. We never try to find out who you are or what you do personally when you use our search engine.
However, when Qwant does not have the answers to your queries, they will pass along pseudonymous data to Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited. Microsoft provides search results, along with “contextual advertising based on the keywords you entered and your geographic region.”
In addition, for purposes of security and reliability of their partner Microsoft’s services, Qwant “may also collect and transfer to this partner your full IP address.” The data transferred to Microsoft is processed under the rules of article 6.1.f of the GDPR, and may be retained in accordance with Bing’s Privacy Policy for a maximum of 18 months.
While the GDPR should protect your data from abuse by Microsoft, if you don’t want Microsoft to know what you are searching for online, you need to be aware that Qwant may share that information with Microsoft under certain circumstances.
Putting that aside, Qwant has good search filtering options. You can filter results by different categories (web, news, social, images, videos, and shopping) as well as by dates. The Qwant homepage includes news stories, trending people, events, and other interest stories. According to their website, Qwant serves 189 million results per month.
Overall, Qwant is a good option for a private search engine, with many features in place to protect user privacy.
https://www.qwant.com/
Brave Search – A new search engine from the Brave browser
Jurisdiction: United States
Search results: Uses its own crawler!
Although it is still in beta, Brave Search looks quite promising. It is brought to you by the makers of Brave, which is a secure browser with built-in privacy that runs on open-source Chromium. Unlike most of the other search engines in this guide, Brave is using its own search index, rather than relying on Bing or Google.
Here is a brief overview of the Brave Search project from their website:
Brave Search is the world’s most complete, independent, private search engine. By integrating Brave Search beta into its browser, Brave offers the first all-in-one browser / search alternative to the big tech platforms. Brave Search beta is also available in other browsers, at search.brave.com.
Given that Brave Search is relatively new, there is not a lot of information regarding the company’s policies and practices. However, there is this FAQ page that answers some questions. We are excited to see this project develop as it appears to be a strong alternative from a well-regarded organization. We’ll keep an eye on it as things progress.
https://search.brave.com/
DuckDuckGo – Popular private search engine based in the US
Jurisdiction: United States
Search results: Primarily Bing, but there are other sources as well.
DuckDuckGo (a.k.a. DDG) is perhaps the most popular private search engine. It’s popularity has grown greatly since our last review. For many people, the first thing to do when installing a new web browser is to set its default search engine to DuckDuckGo.
Based in the United States (not the ideal location from a privacy perspective), DDG was started by Gabriel Weinberg in 2008. It generates search results from over 400 sources including Wikipedia, Bing, and Yahoo. DuckDuckGo has a close partnership with Yahoo (now owned by Verizon).
In March 2022, DuckDuckGo made two interesting announcements in the wake of the situation with Russia and Ukraine.
- They will censor and “down-rank” search results that they feel are related to “disinformation” — see the Twitter announcement here.
- They will no longer source search results from Yandex, according to reports.
We’re not going to attack DDG for its decision to “down-rank” some websites, because we can see both sides of the argument, and this website is not political. However, we will point out that these actions amount to censorship, which DDG previously denounced with other search engines.
To finance operations, DuckDuckGo generates money through advertisements and affiliate programs, which is explained here. Similar to Google and other search engines, DuckDuckGo will display ads at the top of your searches. DDG has partnered with Amazon and eBay as affiliates.
Searches are saved – DuckDuckGo’s privacy policy reveals that 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. We use aggregate, non-personal search data to improve things like misspellings.
While it would be great if DDG didn’t save any search information, saving this data without IP addresses or unique User agent strings should protect your privacy just fine.
The history of DuckDuckGo search
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. Even if Mr. Weinberg were to sell DDG some day, assuming the company continued to follow existing policies on recording search data, there should be nothing to worry about.
https://duckduckgo.com
YaCy – The decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer search engine
Jurisdiction: Not applicable. (Being a decentralized and open-source platform, YaCy does not appear to fall under any particular jurisdiction, similar to Searx.)
Search results: Peer-to-peer crawler model
YaCy is an open source private search engine created in 2004 by Michael Christen. It can run stand-alone or as part of a decentralized peer-to-peer network. 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 the web 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. There is a demo portal here to test things out.
https://yacy.net/
Ecosia – The search engine that plants trees
Jurisdiction: Germany
Search results: Bing
Ecosia is unique on our list in that it donates a portion of profits to charity and is strictly focused on planting trees. It is based in Germany and claims to be a private search engine. However, some of the things it does make it unsuitable for our main list of truly private search engines.
One issue is that Ecosia collects all search queries and then anonymizes this data after seven days. Another is that they do a fair amount of data collecting through website analytics, including your IP address, browser agent, location, and more.
And one more thing…
Ecosia assigns 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 privacy 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, with IP address, are saved for seven days
https://www.ecosia.org/
Yandex.com – A search engine in Russia (with censorship)
Disclaimer: Yandex is a Russian search engine that also engages in censorship, as we see with most Western-based search engines, such as Google and Bing. However, if there is information that you seek, and Western-focused search engines are of no help, then Yandex.com could be a solution for finding what you need. Proceed with caution!
Operating in Russia, we need to point out that Yandex is legally obligated to censor search results. In fact, as we mentioned in our guide on VPNs for Russia, there is massive censorship that is mandated by the government. This is the other side of the censorship coin.
We have also previously pointed out that there is a growing need to unblock websites in Russia given all the censorship lately. In fact, Russia has been actively blocking websites since 2012 and the are now blocking major social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as international news sites, such as the BBC.
So why discuss Yandex if they also engage in censorship? Answer: If you can’t find what you’re looking for with Western-based search engines, then Yandex may be useful.
https://Yandex.com
These search engines have ad-tech owners
Now let’s look at a few search engines that are at least partially owned by advertising companies.
Why is this important to understand?
Because the business model of advertising companies is to collect as much private data as possible. A “private” search engine could be a massive data collection tool in the wrong hands.
Can an ad-tech company be trusted to guard your personal data while running a “private” search engine?
Can a fox be trusted to guard a hen house?
Proceed with caution.
1. Search Encrypt – A search engine with some big 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 (no longer listed) 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. GhostPeek – A clone of Search Encrypt?
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 a US ad-tech company in 2019
Startpage was previously one of my top recommendations for private search engines. However, 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 concerning factors to consider:
- 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.
Choosing the best private search engine is largely about trust, and only you can decide who to trust.
Jurisdiction: Netherlands (officially, but at least partially owned by a US company)
https://www.startpage.com
Private search engine FAQs
Here are 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?
Private search engines make money in three ways: 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. The difference between private search engines and Google or Bing is that private search engines should only be serving ads based on your search term, rather than from all other data collection sources (email, browsing, etc.).
Note: Some private search engines pass a truncated (anonymized) version of your IP address to the search partner, in order to serve relevant ads for your general location.
2. Affiliate revenue
Many private search engines make money through affiliate programs. DuckDuckGo is an example of this; they are a member of both the Amazon and eBay affiliate programs:
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 use affiliate “shopping” results as sources of income.
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 handles (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 to function as 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, RestorePrivacy 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. See the reviews to determine which private search engine best suits your needs.
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)
Many of the private search engines in this guide offer browser extensions to replace the default search engine for your browser. DuckDuckGo has even become listed as an alternative search engine for browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome.
See our guide on secure browsers here.
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 your traffic for safe transit across the internet, 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.
Below are my top VPN recommendations:
- NordVPN: A fast, secure, audited VPN with advanced privacy features and a strict no-logs policy, based in Panama (with a 68% discount coupon).
- Surfshark VPN: A no-logs VPN service with a large lineup of privacy and security features, based in The Netherlands.
- ExpressVPN – A reliable, secure, and user-friendly VPN service that is based in the British Virgin Islands with a no-logs policy (audited twice).
And you can get more information on our top recommendations of the best VPN services here.
4. Use a good ad blocker
A reliable ad blocker is another important privacy tool since ads have become a major threat to your privacy. Many ads now quietly collect data for third-party advertising networks. Other ads (known as malvertising), actually install malware on your computer or mobile device. The best thing to do these days is 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, whenever possible, stay logged out of Big Tech accounts (Gmail, YouTube, Amazon, etc.) when surfing the web, since their trackers will record your browsing activity and link this to your data profile.
Another option is to use one browser for staying logged into various accounts, but then use a separate browser for general browsing activity (this is known as browser compartmentalization).
Considerations when choosing a private search engine
Here are some things to consider 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. Some will actively engage in censorship, or display censored search results from Google or Bing.
- 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.
- Mobile apps – More than a year ago, Google reported that they process more search requests from mobile devices than they do from desktops. We live on our mobile devices, so a search engine that offers a mobile app for your specific device could be a big benefit.
- 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. Check out our reviews, the test drive a few different options to find the best fit for you.
This private search engines guide was last updated on March 10, 2022.
Dear Sven and other friends,
About Startpage, are the restrictions here on search engine security still the same? Yes, an advertising company bought Startpage, but as I read, the CEO of Startpage claims that the company’s headquarters remains in his hands, outside the US, in the Netherlands. Of course, people say anything to justify an idea, a story, so I ask here, especially Sven, if he still puts Startpage as an untrustworthy search engine.
In the case of DDG, so defended by many, the CEO also had a company that collected data from users and the company’s jurisdiction is in the US.
Thanks hugs.
Good points. I’d say go with whichever one you trust. Startpage probably isn’t a bad option and it has a pretty good reputation.
Thanks again for your quick response, Sven.
I think that in addition to the security and privacy factor, so important for those who surf the internet, in fact, in all sectors of our lives, of course, there is also the issue that none of them is complete in terms of productivity in research, in the precision of showing data according to what we researched.
Example: DDG often repeats the sites presented to the user. Every 5.6 indications, some are repeated and are not complete. Startpage, in terms of images, photos, has some bugs when viewing them. He’s a little slow on his responses.
Qwant shows fewer results in polls. And these three have multiple languages ​​to search, other search engines don’t. Of course, Google, Yahoo and the like, impossible to have privacy, so I don’t use it.
It would be necessary to take their qualities and put them in just one search engine, something impossible. I usually use more than one engine, even using one as the default browser.
Thanks, Sven. Keep up the great work. Hugs.
I use duck duck go as my browser and then use startpage as a search engine within dick duck go. Question am I double masked or in reality only using startpage?
DuckDuckGo will know that a user uses its search engine as a shortcut to StartPage. The Duck stores your search history but not your IP.
Sopan / Restorer
Could I get some informative help on whoogle search?
See I’m baffled on what this means and how to go about it.
From – [https://benbusby.com/projects/whoogle-search/]
“Get Google search results, but without any ads, javascript, AMP links, cookies, or other tracking. Easily deployable in one click as a Docker app, and customizable with a single config file. Quick and simple to implement as a primary search engine replacement on both desktop and mobile.”
Very much over my head on the steps on “Easily deployable in one click as a Docker app, and customizable with a single config file.”
Ok the single config file, would go in the app’s root folder but look at the options given on an install and the dependencies mentioned from the link I gave.
Any Advice to deploy this for a novice and have the best results with it?
Thanks ahead!
Per comments:
Sopan May 15, 2021
No mention of whoogle search ?
Reply: Restorer May 17, 2021
There isn’t? I think there was. Thanks for reminding, I forgot about it since it is self-hosted but now there are public instance thanks to the effort of some good people. Whoogle should be a good alternative to Startpage & the currently defunct Runnaroo.
END
Charity, I’m sorry but I’m not familiar with Docker because I only use public instance. From the looks of it, you need to go to Docker website first and install it then make sure the daemon (background process) is running, then follow the steps on GitHub.
In the mean time, there are a few public Whoogle instances I shared in the last comment.
Restorer,
Cool and thanks.
Out of curiosity would an public instance versus Docker (style) be simpler to implement but, not be as secure? Or does it matter really?
Public instance is definitely more convenient because you use other people’s website instead of building your own. But the trade off is whether the instance is reliable and trusted meaning it’s 100% aligned with the creators intent.
Good luck with your project!
Restorer,
My initial thoughts were stimulated by this I’d seen where it mentions Docker (first time I’ve herd of it). {The Helm Personal Server runs a secure and minimal Linux-based operating system built using Yocto. It leverages well-known open-source projects like Docker, Postfix, Dovecot, Let’s Encrypt, Nextcloud, and more bundled into easy-to-use services.}
[https://thehelm.com/pages/press]
Thinking I’m in the market for a Helm’s device where it makes it fast and easy to control your data.
Helm’s technology empowers you to take back ownership of your data through privacy-first services that empowers you to protect your personal information and reclaim control of your data.
Helm device in your realm, you’ll be free from surveillance, corporate oversight, or finding yourself caught in the next massive data breach. It’s never been this quick (or easy) to make your online life private and secure.. Start taking back control with your email, the root of your online identity.
Sounds like what this site here of Sven’s is about. But this is hardware based with a subscription and a Helm device that I own is a personal server that lives where I do.
Hope it’s this easy and I may report on it…but it’s at least 6-8 weeks out ordering today.
Forget the hassle of installing, configuring, and securing another computer to act as your home server. Helm comes ready to use out of the box and takes just five minutes to set up.
Cheers to privacy ya all!
Scratch this Helm thought of mine. I feel after being ankle deep, though only in my research, their not ready yet. If your running a server and it has no fire walling on the OS to the device and offers no plans to cover this fundamental base. What good is any security use of it??????????
Do you think startpage is a good search engine? I used duckduckgo before, but I just rely on google search results, so I started using startpage.
Luke,
Sven has a piece on StartPage. [https://restoreprivacy.com/startpage-system1-privacy-one-group/]
You make up you own head, my take is they’ve fallin from a grace they once held in our privacy fight!
@Sven et all,
Brave search is now live!
Can you add them to the list, Sven?
They are a powerful resource in the fight for privacy!
https://brave.com/brave-search-beta/
Thanks.
Excellent! Yes, I will get it added with the next update.
Thank you. So far, so good. They really have developed a full privacy system.
Their usage reports are private as well as their blender search:
https://search.brave.com/help/usage-metrics
https://search.brave.com/help/google-fallback
Normally I don’t use these two, but I trust that Brave is keeping it private and secure and if it helps them to compete, I don’t mind using an enemy if it aids a friend.
I will allow them to search Google, which will give me private and secure search results, but then they also can build their indexes to make them more robust.
But either way, thank you and this is a great addition for us and this site.
This is pretty good site too to check how private certain search engines are:
[https://searchengine.party/]
Brave Search has recently opened their Beta test, and I’ve started using it. Gives reliable results, but I don’t know much about the privacy. Are you aware of it, Sven?
Hi Christopher, I’m looking at it now. We’ll keep an eye on it to possibly include in the next update when it is released from beta, thanks!
https://brave.com/search/
Hello, Christopher and Sven,
Martin wrote a bit about it, he has been using it for a while and seem to like it over all. Some screenshots and more information about how it works, privacy wise, search result wise etc.
“”Brave Search Beta is now available publicly”
https://www.ghacks.net/2021/06/22/brave-search-beta-is-now-available-publicly/
It seems good, and as long as the results provided will be of high quality it will probably gain popularity, great to see a smaller player trying to make the search engine segment better for everyone, as in hopefully pushing the search giants in a similar direction in how they operate. I wish Brave good luck with it.
As of the latest release of the Brave browser (22 June), it is now possible to select Brave Search beta in the browsers settings panel too:
“Added Brave Search beta to the list of available search engines.”
https://brave.com/latest/
Here’s what Brave writes about the launch:
“Brave Search beta now available in Brave browser, offering users the first independent privacy search/browser alternative to big tech”
https://brave.com/brave-search-beta/
I would like to add DDG and Brave Search use Amazon as hosting which would private our info it the USA government would require it. In my opinion they are not so private comparing to Metager. I was very disappointed when I discovered it, as it contradicts their fight against bit teach as mention by both companies.
*Provide, not private sorry
Daniel,
Agree that AWS is not the best. However, most of your entire web is on AWS including, I would guess, MetaGar.
You can test the net without Amazon: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/28/17622792/plugin-use-the-internet-without-the-amazon-cloud
And please post what you find. I am very interested to hear. You may wish to make a new post instead of replying as this is moving down the line.
Thanks.
Do you know anything about Neeva? They market themselves as an ad-free search that respects privacy by not selling your information but it seems they still collect IP addresses and use Microsoft for some of their services.
Nope, never heard of it.
Just an FYI, the privacy-respecting, metasearch engine Yippy.com is now defunct. It was sold to DuckDuckGo this year and Yippy’s web address redirects to DDG. It’s too bad because I used Yippy from time-to-time because of the ability I had to select sources from it for my own metasearch. Yippy still has its Android app but I suspect that will be removed from Google’s Play Store soon.
I started using Yippy some time ago, maybe 2019, having switched from Startpage. Broke my heart when I learned it had died. Somebody, I think on this site (probably this thread), said it was real slow; I guess that was true, but I still liked it. Now I’m trying Qwant. I use “reverse search” (as in, reverse telephone number lookup) as a test. If I get a preponderance of “reverse image search” results, I reject that search engine. I didn’t say nuthin’ ’bout “image;” what are these people thinkin’? I’m familiar with Oscobo, Mojeek, MetaGer, eTools.ch, SearX, Gibiru (a scam as far as I’m concerned), etc. Rejected them all for Yippy, now Qwant.
If that’s the case, hopefully DDG will incorporate search results clustering like Yippy. See example here
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SAO4jGlcCRE/WMMaDjQu_eI/AAAAAAAACck/hprQr-89kbkss3FlvKOb6Bj41s_S8x0sgCLcB/s1600/result_2017.jpg
I am sorry to see the counter on SwissCows.
That bugs me and has caused me to look elsewhere.
Right now I am using MetaGar (ok for right now) but I am very anxious and excited for Brave’s search engine.
Should be out this year sometime. I could sign up to get early use but I will wait.
Thank you for sharing this!
Just in time for the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Microsoft blames “human error” for Bing not showing image and video results from Tiananmen square’s “Tank Man.” Not surprisingly, it is not the first time this has happened either. A cost of doing business with the Chinese Communist Party.
https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-blames-human-error-amid-suspicion-it-censored-1847037545
Keep an eye on Presearch.com, all I’ve been using lately.
This list need to be updated to 2021, yeah can agree to comment about swisscows they have changed their privacy policy meanwhile.
Still haven’t found out much else bad about Startpage than forced ads (even disabled from their settings, can be easily blocked with most adblockers), their privacy policy is still solid even after all this time.
I found out that Youtube apparently does not allow anonymous use of Youtube. So my attempts to test privacy search engines by using Youtube apparently was a bad idea. But using an Apple computer did seem to provide different results than using a Windows computer.
I will have to find some other way to test privacy search engines.
Good to know and thanks! One other option would be to use Invidious which is an open source proxy so users can avoid YouTube’s tracking. The original Invidious site is down for some reason but there are forks of it you can use. I use this version:
https://tube.incognet.io/
https://github.com/ytprivatecom/invidious
Dear all, I’ve been using Swisscows for a while now, but it seems to me that they changed the privacy policy.
In particular I’ve noticed that now they track the number of searches done, with a small bubble in the right top corner.
An extract of the privacy policy:
” We collect HTTP connection data primarily to monitor and troubleshoot Swisscows services. This helps us to stay live 24/7.
We also perform statistical analysis to understand user behavior and trends, to be able to improve Swisscows and decide which features should be implemented next. This, however, doesn’t involve your personal data.
We collect the data of the incoming search requests to be able to filter out spam and abusive searches. Unfortunately, we ought to monitor and block spam bots, otherwise it would cost us money and resources to process these requests, which means that we would have less possibilities to provide our services to fair users.
After 7 days we remove all personal information (like the IP address and user agent) from the search data. From then no one will be able to know who searched for what. ”
I’m right? Can you go in deep with that? Thanks!
Funny you should mention this. One open source search engine I liked named Infinity Search got rid of their free tier and has embraced a subscription-based model that they say would enable them to not have to rely on advertising. They do have a free, decentralized version but its not the same. Times are a changin’!
https://infinitydecentralized.com/
One other thing I forgot to mention, you could be right with your conclusions, but I don’t use SwissCows so am unfamiliar with the search engine. If you strongly suspect they are collecting user data and you are uncomfortable with it, I suggest you stop using SwissCows and use another search engine.
Using an Apple computer I first went to DuckDuckGo and then Metager and then I went to YouTube. The recommended videos were different, so apparently I was not tracked. This is different then the results I got using a Windows computer. But I used two privacy search engines with the Apple computer.
Without using a privacy search engine you know you are being tracked when going to Youtube, because the typical videos you watch and Youtube channels you go to will be present.
Another good way to avoid Google’s tracking on YouTube in order to watch videos is to use the front-end proxy Invidious. This is one of a few versions that I believe are forks due to Invidious being open source.
https://www.invidiou.site/feed/trending
Using Bing in the Edge browser I went to first Metager and then Swisscows. I don’t know what this means but I then went to YouTube and I was getting the same recommended videos as before based on what videos I typically watch.
So if Metager and Swisscows are truly private search engines why should I get exactly the same videos based on what I usually watch? It seems that Google’s Youtube still knows who I am even if I use private search engines. I try to get away from Google as much as possible but if using a private search engine makes no difference it seems to me that I might as well just use Google search. Maybe everybody has lost and Google has won and there is no use to any of this. I will try a different computer and DuckDuckGo and try this again. If I use TWO privacy engines (DuckDuckGo and either Metager or Swisscows) it seems like Google would not know who I was when I go to YouTube.
Dear Jerry,
In my humble opinion I believe what you are looking for is a private browser (see above mentioned section on private browsers). Or if you must use your current browser Edge, then at least set your settings to delete your cookies after every Internet session (e.g. by using InPrivate mode). This way you will have a cleaner YouTube experience. But note that Edge just sends your data to its owner Microsoft, regardless of your cookie settings, so it is by no means private.
Don’t forget that a private search engine does just that, searching in private. Consider it as one specific website you visit to find (privately) other websites. Others sites that you visit, like YouTube, still track you, unless you visit them via proxy visites in MetaGer, as explained above in the MetaGer section. If you use this MetaGer feature in Edge, you should be unknown to YouTube and hence it’s owner Google (but not to Microsoft, which in my opinion is not any better). So this is a second option.
Hope this helps.
Geoff
No mention of whoogle search ?
There isn’t? I think there was. Thanks for reminding, I forgot about it since it is self-hosted but now there are public instance thanks to the effort of some good people. Whoogle should be a good alternative to Startpage & the currently defunct Runnaroo.
– https://whooglesearch.net
– https://whoogle.sdf.org
– https://search.garudalinux.org/
– https://google61.herokuapp.com/
gibiru.com
Is that supposed to be a good thing?
1. Search for something in gibiru.
2. Pick a result and right-click on the link.
3. Select “Inspect Element (Q) at the bottom of the context menu.
4. The highlighted lines at the bottom of your screen include . . . “www.google.com”.
I’m no expert on this stuff, but that likely can’t be a good thing. Startpage, for example, doesn’t do that. Lilo doesn’t do that. Mojeek doesn’t do that. DuckDuckGo doesn’t do that. Etc. Enjoy.
Great info Sven,
Many thanks for your time and research effort to bring these critical facts to our attention. I have bookmarked you so I can look in now and then to see what is happening, I will also be passing your https onto my friends if the subject comes up in conversation.
Cheers Paul
Thanks Paul.
Thanks mate for all the research you have kindly produced, very helpful and top notch!
Cheers,
Sir Reginald Hollingsworth ll
Thanks Sven, great article! I’m now looking for a VPN and saw that Malawarebyetes Privacy VPN wasn’t listed in the top 5 (that’s my anti-malware software for Microsoft Windows). What’s your take on it? Thanks again!
Hi Phil, I haven’t looked at this VPN yet. Nearly every antivirus offers a VPN, but I’ve generally found them to be sub-par.
It’s nice to know DuckDuckGo is out there doing things like this.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/duckduckgo-ceo-calls-google-says-195517239.html
I have new Androi phone. Possipilities are: Google, ,Bing, info.com, PrivacyWall.
I’v never heard 2 last ones.
Are you looking for search options for your phone?
If so I would recommend SwissCows or Metagar.
Brave is coming out with their own and that may be another good option.
great article, Sven, but
I suggest you note that Quant has exhibited some strange behavior. It hijacked my start page without my permission and did not notify me anywhere in the documention that it would do this. Very underhanded behavior as noted by other folks who have tried it. I would not include it as a possible replacement. thx
Well now…this is interesting.
In a good way 🙂
https://brave.com/search/
That’s interesting, thanks for sharing the news. I wonder how they will do this and if it will be different from others like DuckDuckGo that pull search results from Bing or Startpage with Google results.
You’re welcome.
I don’t know how they will do it but I am excited to see how.
So far they have done a great job with their storage system and I have been impressed.
This will be interesting to watch.
Thanks.
@Sven,
Got more info.
It seems Brave purchased an engine Tailcat.
There are some good details.
I would like your thoughts on the former team and products as I had not heard of some of these. Thanks.
https://brave.com/brave-search/
Yep, I will be looking into it. Brave seems to be moving in the right direction lately, good developments, looks promising.
Agree. That they have. This search is another great step and if they intergrate it into the browser, I will switch.
Thanks.
According to the U.K. Register(link below), Brave Tech has acquired Tailcat, a search engine developed by Cliqz. I agree it will be interesting to see how Brave pulls it off.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/03/brave_buys_a_search_engine/
Thank you, yes, my second poat also explains this as well.
Good catch though. I am looking forward to trying it.
Hopefully Tailcat nee Cliqz will continue building upon its Human Web structure. That’s its unique feature.
https://cliqz.com/en/whycliqz/human-web
Ghostery, on the other hand, is also building a private search engine.
cliqz.com is still up, but the project has been shut down. Did Restorer realize this ?
Yes, Tailcat is said to be developed by former Cliqz employees.
This is interesting, especially in light of how Brave is structuring itself.
Looks like some good options, but did it carry over from cliqz to Tailcat? Lots of questions.
Thanks.
New search engines to check out:
https://candle.to
https://meow.tailcat.com
https://quor.com
https://xayn.com
The amount of data https://candle.to is collecting is shocking. They do not even qualify at all. Look at their privacy policy https://candle.to/privacy
Here’s an example:
We may collect personally identifiable information such as your name, picture, country, and city.
We may collect location data while you are actively using the Service on a mobile device.
Personally identifiable data refers to your profile should you create one.
Also, I shared those search engines without specifying them as private.
This article must immediately issue a retraction of the reporting on DuckDuckGo. .
DuckDuckGo is thes least private & most sinister search engine out there. It was founded by Gabriel Weinberg (DDG) who sends every URL you visit to its servers and partners with Amazon (facial recognition, ring, Alexis), Microsoft’s AnyVision (facial recognition, etc., ), “donated” 25K to Tor which now endorses & defaults to DDG over searexs.eu.org. I could go on but this does it better)
Techrights.org/2020/07/02/ddg-privacy-abuser-in-disguise/
The fact that you suggest DuckDuckGo is private means either your editors are ill-informed or worse, you are part of the evil we fight. It certainly calls into question your credibility and readers should exercise great caution when using you as a source of info.
As stated, a retraction is required to maintain any credibility at all and that retraction should include an explanation and an apology.
Wow, those are some strong accusations. I know opinions on DDG vary, and I differ with most in the privacy community that label it the “best” private search engine. But I’m not sure I’d agree that it is “evil” as you claim. I did include the pros and cons that I found with the service, and note that DDG is not our top recommendation. Also, this guide already points out some of these flaws, including the “Names Database” scandal with the founder, and the drawbacks of the service operating in the US on Amazon servers.
Agreed I noticed a difference right away.they are scumbags betrayed the people for evil Corp money sorry I mean google money .I use tor/onion but it’s 10.00 a month too expensive for freedom
Geesh! A link to an insecure site with a Master of the Obvious posting list after list of “bad” things with few or no alternative “good ” things that cause newbies to freak out.
SearX is highly touted; try it some time 🙂 In reality it’s incredibly complicated to configure so it works. The results it returns mix relevant content with content similar to page 500 Google results. SearX is a great example of how lack of focus quickly becomes chaos. If you’re looking for something very arcane and know where to look, it’s good. Otherwise, it’s like using Tor Browser for everyday surfing, rather miserable.
You do realize a site has to know to whom a request is to be returned and whether that data will be readable, complete or garbled gibberish when displayed in the requestor’s browser. Sites with interactive components (almost all sites) have to function as intended, too.
So, if you want all your browsing info hidden, use a real VPN such as the ones recommended here. Even then, with a lot of effort you can be identified; your sessions are essentially private.
There’s some trust involved in any transaction. The big issue to me with Google is they hound you endlessly plus Google Search is an obnoxious flashing collection of ads and giant fonts. On a phone it’s a frustrating exercise in endless scrolling. DDG can be customized to be unintrusive and is a pleasure to use although their search results are middling. Between is Qwant, somewhat flashy but bearable. Good results, too.
You won’t get high privacy with any search engine alone; other measures such as good ad blockers, VPN, DNS resolver different from your IPS’s, etc would be needed.
Hickory,
Man, first, take a deep breath. Its ok. I agree DDG is not “the best” but the site does balance out fairly good.
Second, please realize that reviews, especially on sites like this, take time. A lot of time.
This is where comments are very helpful, especially in how it is worded. No author can possibly catch EVERYTHING. That is a pipe dream.
However, if you come on here with an approach of,” Hey Sven, did you see…?” You may get a lot farther than this approach.
Then wait and read, read, read. You may find that much of what you allude to is also covered in the comments.
Just wanting to help you out.
Someone who posts something like this making demands but cites a source that uses an unsecure connection (i.e. “http” rather than “https” in their web address) lacks credibility in my book.
I have noticed lately that Duck Duck Go has been censoring my search results. It is my go to search engine but after reading your article and being frustrated with their censorship, I need to find another.
Does anyone know of an uncensored, non- tracking search engine and browser that is not in a country that is trustworthy? (i.e. not Germany, Switzerland, etc.)
Correction: That is not in a country that is untrustworthy.
Sorry for the late reply, @Brenda. In terms of a good browser, in my view, Firefox or Brave on both mobile and desktop are the two best ones. I know they’re in the United States but the only ones you will find elsewhere will be based on their source codes (Blink and Gecko). Just because a browser is made in the United States, does not mean it is bad or you can be spied on. That cannot happen with browsers that are open source (like Brave or Firefox).
As to alternative search engines, despite my not having any problems with DDG, it’s unfortunate you have and my suggestion is to use Startpage. I realize that it isn’t recommended on this site, but I have not had a problem with Startpage and, best of all, it is acts more like a proxy between the user and Google where you get Google’s results without the tracking. If not, perhaps Qwant or Metager might be more to your liking.
Good luck!
Does anyone here have any comments regarding the “BlindSearch” $1/month add-on for SurfShark VPN?
TechAdvisor indicated that “BlindSearch is a search engine that’s completely private. Your searches are not logged and therefore the results shown won’t be skewed by your previous searches.”
The cost is according to CNet.
In my judgment, having to pay for use of a search engine (or for a browser) that is private is a favorable alternative that does not charge but collects information about me. For mainly that reason, I am considering subscribing to SurfShark instead of NordVPN.
I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Infinity Search is an open source, private search engine. I’ve used it many times and their results are very good.
https://infinitysearch.co/
https://gitlab.com/infinitysearch/infinity-search
They want to charge money for the bloody searches! I think not!
Ditch Duckduckgo
Ditch Swisscows
Ditch Startpage
If you want decent private search engines then use these:
1. Runnaroo – It’s quick, private and does deep searches
https://www.runnaroo.com/
2. Oscobo – Targeted mostly to the UK, but good regardless
https://www.oscobo.com/
3. Peekier – The preview feature is quite nifty. Fast and seure
https://peekier.com/
4. Mojeek – Independent, unbiased search and private (results aren’t personalized)
https://www.mojeek.com/
5. Qwant – is just ok. It’s my “Google”
https://www.qwant.com/
Yippy takes the trophy for being THE slowest search engine I’ve ever used in my entire life.
https://www.yippy.com/
Thanks man. I’ve switched over to runnaroo because of you. Too bad about DDG. Why did they go over to the dark side like that?