When you use a search engine, there are a lot of ways that companies can acquire your data. Google is one of the more prevalent in using its algorithms to give you a personalized experience. This also means that your data is collected and stored for use by many companies, including ad agencies, spammers, and lead generators.
With so much of your private information being entered online, it’s even more important to protect it. For those that want to secure their info and stop ad agencies from using your location and history from bombarding you with distractions, consider these search engine alternatives.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is an industry leader in offering privacy protection while you use its search engines. Unlike a lot of sites with more specific interests, DuckDuckGo uses a lot of the same technology as Google to give you a similar experience, just with more attention to keeping your data safe.
It’s important to note that there are ads on DuckDuckGo, but they are not personalized to your information. They’re based on metadata for all the site’s searches. So even if you see that a site has ads, it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily stealing your info.
Qwant
Qwant is another site that promises to leave your data alone when you search on it. Unlike many of the Google alternatives, however, Qwant is a dynamic, resourceful engine that gives you trending topics as well as all the feeds, images, and resources you might expect to get from Google.
Don’t take it from me. Take it from the company’s pledge on their website, which reads that Qwant “does not track people, and that’s never going to change.”
When you register with the site, it does start to use your search history to generate personalized results, which is similar to Google’s practices. The company promises that your info is never shared with third-party companies, but if privacy is your main concern, you may want to stick to the free option.
Hot.com
Privacy shouldn’t be something you have to compromise in order to use a search engine. Hot.com offers its users the promise that their data will never be stored or used.
In addition to refusing to log your activity or track your IP address, Hot is simple and easy to use, with a clean interface and decent search algorithm to bring you fast, accurate results.
MetaGer
This is one of the best options in terms of securing your private information. MetaGer uses a proxy server when you search in order to hide your IP address and keep all your information secure. It can only do this because of the reduced workload compared to a site like Google, which could never provide that amount of security to its users.
Anything you type into MetaGer is turned into an anonymous search query that it then compares to results from multiple search engines for you and gives you the best results, all without revealing your information to any other sites.
MetaGer is supported entirely by your contributions, which keeps its ad-free experience as efficient and private as possible.
Conclusion
Your data often becomes vulnerable when you use a search engine like Google, through the search itself but also through the location and IP address of the device that you use. The bigger engines often collect and use this information through ad companies and lead generators to bring you a more personalized experience, one that also puts your information at risk.
Use these alternatives to get a user-friendly, efficient experience that also protects your sensitive data online. Their services give you a lot of resources to customize your user experience and increase your security. Whether you want to protect your personal info or keep just keep your experience efficient and ad-free, Google may not be the best option.
