Whenever we hear the word search engines, the only name that appears in our mind is Google. With its fast search capabilities, Google is a popular search engine that lets you get all the information possible. Google offers our desired results within just a few seconds.
However, the popular search engines track your online activity and personal information. Data privacy has become a crucial concern for everyone living in the digitally connected world.
Are you aware of the increasing number of cyber security attacks? According to recent news, publicly disclosed data-breached records have reached $612.4 million. Therefore, it is an alarming situation for us to secure our confidential data.
This blog will help you explore what are private search engines and why they are crucial for your online privacy. Additionally, we will provide a comprehensive list of the best private search engines to safeguard against cyber security threats.
What is a Private Search Engine?
Unlike mainstream search engines, private search engines prioritize the user’s data security by not storing and tracking your personal information while your online searches.
Private search engines are also called anonymous search engines or secret search engines. Therefore, using a private search engine means securely searching results without compromising your data privacy.
This program is specifically designed to maintain the privacy of user’s data. However, many secure engines are available, each with its own privacy level. Consider getting private search engines based on your requirements.
Why Should You Use a Private Search Engine?
Private search engines offer robust security for confidential information by not tracking your search history. Popular search engines like Google and Yahoo track much of your data without informing users even while using incognito mode.
However, tracking the user’s personally identifiable information is against the privacy laws and regulations like GDPR. Here are the crucial reasons for using private search engines instead of mainstream search engines for your data security.
Data Protection
Private search engines employ encryption to secure your connection from third-party tracking. It makes it harder to track your data to prevent unauthorized access to your search queries and potential data theft. Therefore, private search engines are essential to secure your search history from tracking.
Avoiding Personalized Ads
Have you ever seen a similar advertisement after you searched for something on Google? Popular search engines like Google use your search history and other personal information to tailor personalized ads. However, private search engines help you hide your details from tracking. It prioritizes the user’s anonymity and reduces the chances of receiving the ads based on your search results.
Encouraging Transparency
Secure search engines are paid, but they maintain the user’s anonymity. It also protects users from potential privacy infringements. Additionally, private search engines encourage transparency with their open policies regarding data collection and usage. However, by using private search engines, users can review the privacy policies about how their data will be transformed.
Enhancing Online Security
Using private search engines reduces the risk of cyber security attacks by encrypting your search queries and other personally identifiable. The private engines contribute to your online security by reducing the amount of your personal information that is vulnerable to cyber threats. Therefore, it is an effective way to mitigate identity theft and data breaches.
Common Categories of Private Search Engines
The demand for private search engines has been increasing due to the increasing number of data theft and data breaches. Let’s explore some of the most common types of search engines for your online privacy.
Meta Search Engines
Meta search engines provide search results from different search engines without storing any of your private data. However, users can even choose their preferred search sources to enhance their online security. It gathers information from multiple search engines and also uses its own crawls to offer search results.
Proxy Search Engines
This is another most common private search engine, and it acts as an intermediary between users and search engines like Google and Yahoo. Proxy search engines search the results on behalf of the users, so their personal information remains secure and confidential. However, securely searching results with private search engineers prevents potential data theft threats.
Anonymous Search Engines
The anonymous search engines prioritize user anonymity and hide the IP address to offer you a private searching experience. These search engines provide confidential search results by not tracking the user’s search history and other personally identifiable information.
Now, let’s discuss the best private search engines for a secure browsing experience.
Best Private Search Engines for Secure Browsing
Using private search engines is essential for a secure browsing experience. There are various options available when it comes to private search engines. However, we are discussing the best ones available and opt for the one that suits your privacy requirements.
1. DuckDuckGo
The private search engines offer you a secure browsing experience, and one of the popular ones in the list is DuchDuckGo. This emphasizes data security by not tracking or storing any of your search queries and other private information. DuckDuckGo offers results from multiple sources and serves around 10 million daily searches.
However, it is not only a private search engine but a blocking browser extension that helps people retain their online privacy. Additionally, the private browser blocks the web tracks and also upgrades the insecure connections to HTTPS when possible.
2. Qwant
Qwant is a France-based private search engine that adheres to French data protection authority and stricter European laws than those in the US. Its main priority is maintaining user privacy and providing a secure browsing experience.
Qwant doesn’t store your search history and uses your data for personalized results. In addition, it emphasizes privacy with no data tracking or storing. It also provides separate tabs for different types of content like web, social, or news. However, it offers a Qwick search feature to get quick answers.
3. Searx
Searx is another privacy-focused metasearch private search engine offering accurate results from various search engines. Fortunately, it does not include ads on the search results pages.
Searx runs on open-source software, which means you can run it on your own server by getting a code via Git Hub. Moreover, it provides customizable results while protecting user privacy with no data tracking or logs. Searx blocks the malicious scripts and safeguards you against HTTP headers.
4. Startpage
Startpage is one of the oldest yet the best private search engines to maintain user anonymity while offering the best Google search results. It is one of the best alternatives to Google for a secure browsing experience.
However, it acts as an intermediary between you and Google and offers you results without sharing your personal information to ensure user privacy. One of its highlighting features is the anonymous view that acts as a protective shield and prevents Websites from tracking users’ information.
5. Swisscows
Swisscows is another Swiss-based private search engine that prioritizes privacy and data security. It is known as a family-friendly browser, and it is protected by the strong data protection and privacy laws of Switzerland.
Swisscows state that it doesn’t use cookies and other tracking technologies to track your online activity. However, Swiscows has its own trusted server to protect the user from tracking and profiling. Hence, your IP address, browser information, device information, and your online activities remain private.
6. MetaGer
A German-based metasearch engine that hides your IP address, blocks target ads and provides complete data protection. MetaGet doesn’t collect or store user data and other information for tracking purposes. However, it increases user privacy with its “Open Anonymously” feature.
Moreover, MetaGer generates its revenues through advertising, and a non-profit organization runs it. It provides users with results from multiple search engines without compromising user’s anonymity. Hence, it prioritizes protection against censorship and does not collaborate with third parties for data sharing.
7. Ecosia
A private search engine called Ecosia has a distinct focus on environmental sustainability. This browser is environmentally conscious and donates a significant portion of its earnings to reforestation groups for tree-planting purposes. Regarding features, Ecosia encrypts your search without tracking or storing any of your information.
Nonetheless, it earns income via the Microsoft Advertising Network, implying that you will come across sponsored ads from Bing when you search. It may collect some of your data, but it anonymizes search results data after seven days.
Final Verdict
Using private search engines is becoming necessary in today’s interconnected world. Choosing a private search engine depends on your security preferences and requirements. Each has unique privacy features, but they share a mutual commitment to user privacy.
However, if you want a more secure browsing experience, try using your chosen search engine with Oyster VPN for an even more secure experience. VPN helps you secure your online activities if your search engine tracks any of your information. Choose the best private search engine for safe browsing and join the Google-free lifestyle with millions of others.
