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Keeping your data more private - Search Engines, Websites, and Apps

It's no secret that Google loves your data. From Android, Nest, Photos, Maps, etc., it gives you great value, but it also ravenously gathers and hoards data about you- all under the Terms of Service, of course. Google is not alone; Amazon, Facebook, Twitter all use data they get from you to generate money through ad sales, product shaping, and data sharing. While the day to day interaction with these services feels fairly benign and provide great value- often free of charge, the data they gather about you can be shocking.

These companies can gather information such as your location, your shopping habits, your voice, your health, your demographics and more. What can they do with that data? Change prices on items to the most they think YOU will be willing to pay. Predict where you're going when you travel. Show you ads for diet pills and make-up if your browsing activity looks like you're feeling down about yourself.

In addition to the recommendations for keeping your devices more secure Link, Link, choosing search engines that keep your data and your identity private is extremely valuable as well. Here are a few search engine alternatives to Google and Bing that go a long way in keeping your data safe.

Sure. Here's a markdown-formatted comparison of Startpage, DuckDuckGo, and Brave Search based on your criteria:

Privacy-Focused Search Engine Comparison

Startpage

Website: https://www.startpage.com/

Focus: Private search results using Google's index without tracking.

What it protects: Hides your IP address, strips search queries of identifying information, and prevents search history tracking.

Benefits:

Criticisms:

  1. Partially owned by System1, an ad-tech company
  2. Not open-source, so claims cannot be publicly audited
  3. Relies entirely on Google for search results

DuckDuckGo

Website: https://duckduckgo.com/

Focus: Easy-to-use private search that avoids personalized tracking.

What it protects: Blocks trackers, hides IP addresses, and avoids building a personal ad profile.

Benefits:

Criticisms:

  1. Uses Bing results, meaning Microsoft sees anonymized queries
  2. Not fully open-source
  3. Past controversy over allowing some Microsoft trackers in its browser

Website: https://search.brave.com/

Focus: Fully independent, privacy-first search engine built from scratch.

What it protects: Keeps all searches anonymous and avoids sending data to third parties.

Benefits:

Criticisms:

  1. Still maturing and may lack depth in some niche queries
  2. Part of the Brave browser ecosystem, which includes optional crypto features
  3. Fewer advanced features than Google or Bing

You will want to try all of these out to find the one, or ones that give you the results you want. None of them will have the quantity of results that the larger search engines do, but the trade-off may be well worth it for you.

Bonus

In addition to these alternatives you can go a step further by using Pi-Hole. Pi-hole is a network-wide ad blocker that runs on a device in your home like a Raspberry Pi. It works by acting as your DNS server, filtering out requests to known ad, tracking, and malware domains before they ever reach your devices. This blocks ads and trackers across all apps and browsers on your network, improving privacy, speed, and security without needing to configure each device individually. Pi-hole is a piece of software that sits between your computer/phone and the internet and blocks ad traffic coming into your home. It requires a little technical know-how, but is non-destructive. It could be a fun weekend project.

Website: https://pi-hole.net/

If you've gone as far as to set up a VPN, some people report success in blocking YouTube ads by selecting specific VPN servers in other countries. Using your Pi-hole with a VPN is more advanced and depends on the VPN software's capabilities.