As web users become more informed about how search giants work, they are flocking to alternatives which seem to take a more ethical, trustworthy stance. Private search engines are a response to problems like this. Can we trust it to keep our data private?

In fact, some security experts have argued that the CIA “made” Google via investment decisions.

Doubts about links to the security state – Google is part of the In-Q-Tel program, and has not been open about its links with the NSA and CIA.

For example, its email arm, Gmail, has been unmasked as allowing developers access to users’ contact lists and emails.

Information sharing with developers – sometimes, Google seems more loyal to paying customers than ordinary users.

Either way, it lets Google build up in-depth profiles for marketing purposes. The company claims that this is anonymized, but as it’s based around IP addresses, that’s not necessarily true.

User tracking – Cookies also allow Google to track users on their paths around the web.

This may be necessary to satisfy Google’s business model, but it means that the search engine is much more invasive than it needs to be.

Cookies – each Google search beams a cookie to the user’s computer, which tracks where they go, and what they search for.

Just to name a few historical problems with Google: As you’re probably aware, Google has a poor reputation when it comes to collecting data on users, along with other privacy issues. We call them “private” in comparison to Google – the market leader. Get NordVPN Introducing private search enginesĭuckDuckGo is part of a relatively new breed of search providers that have come to be known as private search engines.

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