Searching For Privacy

We’ve grown somewhat used to the phrase “If you’re doing nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide”.  That being said, plenty of us don’t take it as truth that privacy has to die.  There are countless stories of security leaks, and it’s impossible to hear the letters NSA without thinking about being watched.  But taking a few simple steps can drastically improve your right to privacy in everyday life.  Step one being how you browse the internet.

You don’t have to be watched:

Yes, it’s a little-known secret, but there are ways you can search the web without giving up your privacy.  Over the years the word “Google” has become synonymous to looking something up.  And for good reason because Google has a huge market share on global searches.  But they’re by no means your only option.  At the start of 2018 Google searches accounted for roughly 70% of all searches.  The bottom line being that they aren’t going away any time soon, but there’s 30% worth of other options.

The purpose of this blog post is not to bash Google by any means.  It’s an incredible search engine that yields top tier results.  It’s grown to the size it is for many reasons.  This post is simply to inform you of options besides the traditional search engines like Google and Internet Explorer.  There are some players that do things differently.  A key difference being that your search history is just that: yours.

Some alternatives:

If you’ve ever looked into private search engines, then you’re undoubtedly familiar with DuckDuckGo.  Its CEO is famous for saying “if the FBI comes to us, we have nothing to tie back to you.”  Their motto is simple: they don’t store your personal information. Ever.  They also offer an interesting feature known as “bangs”.  Not really privacy related, but bangs allow you to quickly search results on other sites by adding a “!” to your search.  So if you knew you wanted to search for something on Wikipedia you could jump straight to it.

Another solid option is Tor.  Tor Browser secures your connection to the internet with three layers of encryption, and passes it through voluntarily operated servers around the world.  It’s goal is to make you one in a million person crowd that is indistinguishable from others, and thus untargeted for any kind of privacy extraction.  Tor’s onion services allow for users to publish things online without needing to reveal their location.  Even the U.S. Navy has used Tor for open source intelligence gathering.  Don’t worry, by that I don’t mean info on your browsing sessions!

A 3^rd favorite is StartPage.  Developed by Ixquick, StartPage gets you the privacy you want but actually gives you the results straight from Google. It features a proxy service, URL generator, and HTTPS support that allow you to revisit your browsing sessions without needing cookies.  In other words, it remembers your browsing in a privacy friendly way.

More than just security:

If you’re like me, you’ve been shocked before at some of the ads you see.  They’ve become so practical at targeting you you’ll see an ad for something you had only thought about in the privacy of your own mind.  Browsing in private mode can certainly help with this as the less data there is collected on you, the harder it is to target you with personalized ads.  Or even ads in general.  Just another big perk to consider when deciding if you want to check out other browsers!

All in all, you could be perfectly happy with the way you’re surfing the internet right now, but there are always other options if you decide to give them a try.  What are your thoughts on the recent privacy issues?  Maybe you use a VPN. Do you take other precautions to keep your information secure?  Let us know in the comments below!