Forget Google | Use These Search Engines If You Want to Protect Your Privacy
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One thing's for sure: there's no more popular search engine than Google. If someone has internet access, chances are they're either using Google now or they've used it at some point in the past.
There's no doubt that Google is huge, and there's a really good reason for that. Not only does it offer a ton of features, but it's the default in most browsers, it's really easy to use, and often it seems Google even knows what you want to search for before you do.
Of course, there's a reason for that too. Google isn't the most private search engine available. Google gathers a lot of information about you, to the point that it's borderline creepy. The search engine can collect some of this information even when you aren't signed in to your Google account, including things like your IP address, your location, and what device you're using.
Fun fact, if you go to this link, you can get a pretty good idea of what Google knows about you based on your search history, what's in your Gmail account, and data collected from advertisers that partner with Google.
The good news is that Google isn't the only search engine available. There are others that put your privacy first — and no, we aren't suggesting Bing, although it's still worth a mention. Read on for six great alternatives to Google that take your privacy seriously.
DuckDuckGo
You've probably already heard of DuckDuckGo. When it comes to private search engines, DuckDuckGo is one of the most popular options. And there's a good reason for that.
DuckDuckGo is a search engine based in the US. It can generate results from over 400 sources online, including Wikipedia, Bing, and Yahoo.
What's great about DuckDuckGo is that it doesn't store any of your personal information at all, meaning it can't track your online activity or your search history.
Likewise, DuckDuckGo also comes with several security features to prevent things like search leakage, and you can use its encrypted version to give you an extra layer of protection.
Qwant
Qwant may not be the most widely known search engine, but it's just as private and secure as the others on our list. Based in France, Qwant offers protection for your information without tracking a single thing about you.
Qwant gets most of its results from Bing, so you know you'll have hundreds of thousands of search results available in seconds. It doesn't keep any sensitive information or track your search history when it comes to privacy.
It does need to collect some information to function, such as your search terms, IP address, and information about your browser. However, it doesn't use this information to create an online profile or target you with ads. Qwant will create some cookies on your device to store browser settings, but it doesn't use any ad-tracking cookies or other techniques to collect more information about you.
MetaGer
MetaGer is an open-source metasearch engine based in Germany with one goal in mind: Free access to knowledge.
So what is a metasearch engine exactly? Well, the term basically means that it sends queries to several other search engines and then categorizes the responses based on where they're coming from. It mostly shows results from Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex.
MetaGer doesn't just believe in access to knowledge; it also believes in privacy. When using MetaGer, your full IP address is protected at all times. However, it's worth mentioning that the service does give part of your IP address to its advertising partner in order to sustain itself. But it doesn't use this to send customized ads or create a profile of you. It also deletes the full IP address after 96 hours.
They also don't use cookies or any other tracking methods. Plus, you have the option to open any given search result anonymously for even more privacy.
Mojeek
Mojeek is a cool and independent search engine based in the United Kingdom that doesn't get its results from Google or Bing. Instead, this search engine has its own crawler that indexes the web.
For the most part, Mojeek doesn't place any cookies on your device, but if it has to, it'll ask you for permission first. You'll get an explanation for why it needs to do so, and you can easily decline, or accept, in which case you can simply delete the cookie when you're done with your Mojeek session.
Apart from that, Mojeek doesn't use any other trackers when you're visiting a website. Plus, more personal information like your country or region and time zone are placed in a separate data store that doesn't have any identifiable information to avoid creating a profile on you.
Brave Search
If you're the type of person who wants to support national websites, you'll want to try Brave Search. This is a private search engine made by the people who developed Brave from the US.
Brave Search works like any other search engine on the list. This means it won't gather any of your personal information or track you in any way. It also blocks all ads, trackers, and third-party cookies that may try to collect information on you or track you, and removes the most common related query parameters from the URLs you visit.
Other optional features with Brave let you block social media logins, apply regional filters, and even use the Tor network when you open a new tab for completely anonymous browsing.
Startpage
Startpage is another option to check out if you're looking for a feature-packed, privacy-oriented search engine.
Although Startpage does show you ads, they're the privacy-friendly kind, which means they won't know what you want before you even think about it. If you don't want to see them at all, however, you can disable them from the search engine's settings, so you can probably already guess that Startpage won't store or share your search history.
It also uses an encrypted connection to remove your IP address. When you visit any website, your profile is anonymous, with your IP address removed, and it also automatically blocks other parties that may be trying to track you. You can even take it one step further with a fully anonymous view that will protect your privacy similar to the way that a VPN would.
Another cool thing about Startpage is that it also offers Startmail, a private and secure email service, which is a nice plus.
