Search and Privacy: A Quick Update
October 3, 2017
In my files, I had a copy of “Duck Duck Go: Illusion of Privacy.” This document comments on the hurdles a public Web search system must jump over in order to deliver privacy. You can find the write up at this link. If you want to test some privacy-oriented search systems, there are some DuckDuckGo.com alternatives. I am not endorsing these outfits; I am passing along some links because within the last couple of years I learned that privacy is part of the marketing for these systems: [a] Ixquick which is now Startpage at www.startpage.com. This is a metasearch engine which means that the user’s query is passed (in theory anonymously to Bing, Google, Yandex, et al). [b] Unbubble.com (Note that this European service asserts “strong privacy.” The link is www.unbubble.eu [c] Gibiru service (www.gibiru.com) emphasizes anonymous search. Gibiru provides a link to the Firefox Anonymox plug in. But the most recent version of Firefox has been tricky for us, however. My personal view on search anonymization is that when I research my books about cyberosint, the Dark Web, and eDiscovery for cyber intelligence, I assume that I have a number of individuals thrilled with the sites we uncover, write up, and describe in our lectures and webinars. In short, I avoid trying to be “tricky” because I can explain the thousands of queries we run about many exciting topics. See www.xenky.com/darkwebnotebook for a sampler.
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2017
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One Response to “Search and Privacy: A Quick Update”
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Hi Stephen. Thank you for mentioning StartPage.com for search privacy.
StartPage delivers actual Google search results — but in privacy. Google never sees you, and StartPage does not use tracking cookies or log any user personal information.
StartPage also offers a free proxy option with every search result. This lets users visit 3rd party websites in privacy, too. When a user visits a site through the StartPage proxy, the site and its advertisers don’t “see” the user, which helps prevent those annoying ads that track consumers across the Internet.