Life without the internet is impossible in today’s world, providing search engines with a billion users. But the people ignore that they let the popular search engines like Yahoo and Google grab the information while they surf the web.
Search Engines
The search engines attempt to track every piece of information. Based on the data collected, a user map is generated by them, showing the browsing personality of a particular user. After forming the user maps, these maps are passed to the advertisers, showing specific ads related to the user’s search history.
The process may seem helpful to a particular search engine enabling them to provide more relevant results; from the users’ point of view, their privacy gets invaded. However, nowadays, people search for information on the internet, including some sensitive issues, and hence, they value their privacy more.
Many firms have realized the need to maintain users’ privacy while providing them with the desired result. It led to the formation of search engines that claim to respect other users’ private information.
DuckDuck Go
DuckDuckGo provides data security while surfing the web, receiving approximately 14 million search requests per day. The search engine collects the results from 400 sources like Wikipedia and Yahoo. It also has a crawler of its own known as DuckDuckBot.
The IP address is considered to deliver local results. However, after the results are provided, the IP address gets deleted from the database. Therefore, the IP address is only visible when the search engine receives the search request.
The ads visible on the web page enable the collection of commissions if the user shops through the ads displayed by Amazon and eBay. The ads don’t come in between the web page, therefore not being an issue.
Features:
- It does not save the search history of the user.
- The users can save their settings using the cloud.
- Information is extracted with a few clicks.
- Enables the user to limit searches based on their region.
- The privacy policy is transparent and detailed.
SearX
searX is the search engine known to collect information by integrating with the top search engines and then providing the same to the user. The search engine is currently running via open-source software, and code is present on GitHub. The coders are free to make their contributions to make it better.
The engine does not track the user’s searches or store any personal data, making it a reliable option to use. Another notable point is that no ads are there on the webpage.
Features:
- searX eliminates the identity revealing data while making the search requests from other search engines. Hence, the search phrases in the latter are termed anonymous requests.
- The engine works on the mechanism of proxy search.
- No data breach has been found to maintain the user’s privacy.
- The users can customize the searches according to their preferences.
Qwant
While using Qwant, the user does not come across any personalized advertisement, proving that the user activity is not saved. The search results are derived from that of Bing. Users can operate the engine without any registration. If users opt to register, they can mark their favorite searches and save them.
The ads are visible as they are the revenue collection source of the engine, but they are not based on the searches made by the user. In addition, users can customize their homepage by adding the trending headlines on the home screen.
Like Google, Qwant also has other products, including Maps, Boards, and Music by Qwant. In addition, Qwant lite is also available for people operating older web browser versions.
Features:
- The search engine does not pass the user’s data to third parties.
- The search results are categorized automatically.
- Enables users to filter the results according to their preferences.
- It has a separate search engine for children named, Qwant Junior (6-13 years).
- The user interface is simple to use.
Swisscows
As the name says, the search engine is a Swiss origin and contains a self-made index to solve the user’s queries. Furthermore, the engine uses language settings, enabling the user to choose among the eight given languages. In addition, the user can filter the results according to the popularity or date of publishing.
The engine uses semantic knowledge so that the most valuable results reach the user first. The search engine does not rely on third-party servers, having their private ones. The data center is not based in Europe or the US but in the Swiss Alps.
The ad banners visible on the web page are based on a search request made by the user. None of the ads considers the location and the user’s search history. Parents prefer Swisscows for their children to not come across any explicit content.
Features:
- The search engine automatically filters violent content.
- The searches made are private, with no room for data storage.
- It focuses on delivering content having a family-friendly nature.
MetaGer
MetaGer provides the results without any filter and is unbiased. Furthermore, the result pages give the option to the users to view any link anonymously. The crawlers, as well as indexers utilized, are privately owned by the firm.
MetaGer stores the IP address of the users temporarily for an approximate time of ninety-six hours. The reason behind doing so is the default nature of the search engine, which sets a limit on the number of search requests made by a particular IP address at a specific time.
Features:
- MetaGer alters the user’s search requests to anonymous queries when sent to other search engines.
- Proxy search is incorporated with the engine to hide the user’s IP address, thus maintaining privacy.
- Users can make contributions to support MetaGer.
- Users can access the maps without the fear of getting their location tracked.
Conclusion
Data breaching has been a serious issue from the users’ side as the technology is rising to its peak. Users want more secure search engines that don’t feed on their private data and receive tons of related ads seen commonly in Google and Yahoo.
The significant advantage of using private search engines is that they maintain the security of the data by encapsulating the search history from other web-searching services if, in case, the information is being collected from them. It gives the user appropriate information and removes the fear of tampering with their information.
Even after using private search engines, your information can get tracked. To eliminate the minimum possibility of data tracking, IT experts recommend using a VPN. The end-to-end encryption feature masks the user’s actual location and provides freedom to browse anything. To get this encryption and to mask location you have to use the best VPN App.
