Some search engines log personally
identifiable information (PII) such as location, IP addresses, digital
identity, and other data to make the search results more relevant to the
user, to display contextual advertising, or even to protect against
fraud. They also track user activity and attempt to understand users’
behaviour on the web. Tracking by search engines may provide customised
search results and help a user find the relevant content faster, it may
also cloud the search results with the same information. While the quest
for online anonymity and by extension, privacy, have essentially had to
be traded off with convenience, there are different levels at which
netizens may be able to guard their privacy online. Here is a quick list
of some tools or services to ensure your privacy while conducting web
searches.
Tor, a free-of-cost client-side software system is arguably the most
well-known online anonymity tool. It uses multi-layered (like an onion)
encryption to protect users’ identities. Users need to run an onion
proxy on their devices. The data generated from activities such as
visits to websites or content published online is encrypted many times
over as it travels through the network, concealing the user’s identity
and making it difficult to unscramble the information that is
intercepted during communication. It is distributed under a free
software license. However, researchers have documented ways of
compromising the Tor network.
Screenshot of a search query at DuckDuckGo.com for DuckDuckGo
Built majorly on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), Duck Duck Go
does not store IP addresses, cookies, doesn’t use cloud services, and
Google APIs. It uses crowdsourced information to enhance search results,
instead of tracking users. Search results are compiled from the
DuckDuckBot, Wolfram Alpha, Wikipedia, and the Yahoo! Search BOSS (Build
Your Own Search Engine) API. It has additional plug-ins
such as those for arithmetical calculations or cryptographic tools.
Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of the search engine sums up its privacy
policy, "By default, DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. That is our privacy policy in a nutshell". Searching a URL on DDG shows links from Google cache and the Wayback Machine.
AskEraser is a privacy feature of the search engine Ask.com. When
this feature is enabled, a user’s search history is deleted from servers
within a few hours (Search engines are known to retain users’ data for
as long as a few months.) The deleted content includes session cookies,
IP addresses, search strings themselves, and the associated user ID,
which is typically a serial number assigned to the user. However,
AskEraser does not delete PII.
Ixquick is another search engine dedicated to search privacy. According to its privacy policy,
it does not collect or share personal information such as the IP
addresses, browser and platform information, and the text of the search
query.
Google Encrypted Search
Google Encrypted Search enables searching over SSL (secure socket
layer). Navigate to https://www.google.com or to
https://encrypted.google.com to use this feature.
If you have a Google account, logging out of it before performing a
search, or using different browsers for searching and using the account
makes it slightly harder to log and track your activity.
GoogleMonkeyR is a userscript that enhances Google Search. Using the
“trackless” option displayed adjacent to every search result, prevents
the visit from being recorded and logged into your Google search
history.
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