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Dear Google, please keep on doing what you do. Whatever youre doing is working very well!

Dear Google, do what you want to do. I use ixquick.

https://ixquick.com/

As referenced here, startpage was awarded the European Privacy Seal.

StartPage is run by the IxQuick guys. They are basically the same meta-search engine with Startpage adding Google to the fray.

When you go to the store to buy something, people have an opportunity to notice your activities.

Use cash?

If you use Google, its absurd to demand they forget what you tell them to of the encounter.

You do realize there are other search engines out there, some of which at least purport to respect privacy? I prefer ixquick.com.

The government should have certain limits ...

It appears that boat's already sailed. Gmail uses https, doesn't it? That's crypto, so every gmail user is a potential terrorist! When your gov't is telling its people that normal, everyday practices used by millions of average, law abiding citizens are suspicious activities denoting terrorist activities, the gov't is out of control in its quest for control/power over the populace. No, perfect anonymity never existed, but now, any anonymity is seen as suspicious behaviour to be reported to the Stasi, er, authorities.

That being said, this flyer is hilarious.

I think you misspelled atrocious, infuriating, insulting, insane, or something.

I would imagine that Google don't want users to just switch to other search engines.

This change (coupled with their bias towards google+ results) is probably going to push more users in that direction as they doubt the quality of the information resulting from a google search.

I've switched to using DuckDuckGo! and Ixquick about 6 months ago. They work perfectly.

https://duckduckgo.com/
https://www.ixquick.com/

As long as the website tells the truth in its privacy policy, https://ixquick.com/ will be more secure than Google.

there is also DuckDuckGo

Shattering of an illusion that scroogle.org has tried to tell us about for so long: Google is evil, like all the rest of them.

http://www.scroogle.org/gifs/gscrew.gif

Some alternatives to searching, which I think is the most dangerous tool to lose your privacy on: https://duckduckgo.com/ https://www.ixquick.com/ and of course http://scroogle.org/ that has many SSL-solutions, depending on your OS.

the issue with the BAF is not that it protects the copyright, but in the way it does it - by threatening and bullying ISPs
there is no legal ban of the TPB site, but BAF is trying to enforce it by going around the legal procedures.

There is a legal ban of the TPB site (see below), but it only affects two ISPs atm. BAF is not "going around the legal procedures". They're using tort law to enforce their business model. What I'd like to know is, why are the ISPs not banding together to fight this? Pretty much every other industry has an umbrella organization. Don't ISPs?

As for why TPB stories so often show up on /., it's because orgs like BAF in their "Bull in a China Shop" ways threaten to destroy the net in their myopic attempts to enforce their business model. Whether you're a pirate or a boycotter, destruction of the net is a huge over-reaction on the part of BAF and the legal system.

As for why nitwits have to ask /. why TPB stories end up on /., it's because even now some people can't think clearly enough to plug "baf tpb" into a search engine. A court has forced two ISPs to break DNS, and BAF is attempting to extort other ISPs into doing the same.

Funny thing is, DNS isn't necessary:

(0) infidel /home/blah_ nslookup depiraatbaai.be
Server: 10.0.1.1
Address: 10.0.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: depiraatbaai.be
Address: 194.71.107.15

(0) infidel /home/blah_ nslookup malaysiabay.org
Server: 10.0.1.1
Address: 10.0.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: malaysiabay.org
Address: 184.173.151.99

Google has spent the past several years (a) getting millions of people dependent on their services first anonymously, then (b) with pseudonymous accounts that tie people's activities all together. People and companies use Google for searching (Log in to "personalize" your results; having Google keep your "search history" is great convenience, right?), emailing, storing sensitive documents, uploading photos, planning their movements, marking maps with locations both public and private, and probably a bunch of other things I don't even know about. And now Google has (c) created a competitor to Facebook and signed up millions of people in the first few weeks, which, once you attempt to use, they expect you to divulge a "legal" name --- and if they suspect the name you put in isn't, they want to see a government ID in order to allow you to continue using their services.

This is Google slowly building up, and now closing, a trap --- in order to snare what probably amounts to exabytes of personal information on real human individuals. We know it's the CIA funding Facebook. I wonder which intelligence/surveillance agency is funding Facebook's new "competitor."

The Startpage search engine allows encrypted SSL connections and also the option of viewing the results through a proxy. For an encryped SSL connection to the Startpage search engine, type HTTPS instead of HTTP in the URL for Startpage. For example, either of the following will give an encrypted connection to their webpage:

https://startpage.com/
https://ixquick.com/

Then, after searching for what you are looking for, click on the word “Proxy” after the most likely looking search result. By clicking on the word “Proxy,” you get to view the website with Startpage acting as a proxy.

Presumably, the Internet providers logs would then not show what the user had been searching for and viewing. Startpage also does not record IP addresses or use cookies. Startpage is known as Ixquick outside of the United States. Below are two links that talk about the proxy feature of Startpage.

http://ixquick.com/proxy/eng/help.html
Katherine vs Google

Just for example, if I were searching for some information about some conspiracy theory I had recently heard about, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage, and the proxy option for viewing the results. Not wanting the government think that I might be one of those wacko conspiracy theorists, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage and choose the proxy option for viewing the results.

The Startpage search engine allows encrypted SSL connections and also the option of viewing the results through a proxy. For an encryped SSL connection to the Startpage search engine, type HTTPS instead of HTTP in the URL for Startpage. For example, either of the following will give an encrypted connection to their webpage:

https://startpage.com/
https://ixquick.com/

Then, after searching for what you are looking for, click on the word “Proxy” after the most likely looking search result. By clicking on the word “Proxy,” you get to view the website with Startpage acting as a proxy.

Presumably, the Internet providers logs would then not show what the user had been searching for and viewing. Startpage also does not record IP addresses or use cookies. Startpage is known as Ixquick outside of the United States. Below are two links that talk about the proxy feature of Startpage.

http://ixquick.com/proxy/eng/help.html
Katherine vs Google

Just for example, if I were searching for some information about some conspiracy theory I had recently heard about, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage, and the proxy option for viewing the results. Not wanting the government think that I might be one of those wacko conspiracy theorists, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage and choose the proxy option for viewing the results.

I have been using ixquick. I like that it doesn't keep any data on you. You can even set it to use https so that noone else is snooping on your searches.

Yeah, sorry. I didn't know what you meant at first but just noticed the extra "." I put in the link.

The correct link is https://ixquick.com/ .

That's great, so now I just have to start my search with "torrent" or "arrrr" and I won't have to suffer through Google's rediculous "instant" crap? Sign me up!

In all seriousness; if you like Google just blacklist it for JavaScript, no more instant results. Or search from the address bar. Or, best option IMHO, use https://ixquick.com./ *

* google it for more details!

C64_love (still looking for a new search engine that's not Google)

https://ixquick.com/

Check out Ixquick, which started using SSL before Google introduced it, and has a pretty minimalist interface.

Search Engine: Ixquick
Email provider: Your own email server. Sorry, I would recommend something simpler, but every third party is guaranteed to become corrupted over time.

there is always another search website, and even if its not quite as fast or accurate as google, if it makes a loud point of pledging to not rape your privacy, then it will even beat google, eventually

Really? How is Ixquick doing?

Privacy only wins markets whose costumers are composed of privacy-aware people, which are rare. For most people, what wins the market is:
1) marketing (normal and "viral")
1.1) Having a strong brand on one market that you can use to launch products in other markets
2) use quality (faster loading, better results, non annoying ads).

Privacy is something that most people don't even have a clear definition of, let alone govern they product choices. Only if it becomes unbearable will people react.

if it makes a loud point of pledging to not rape your privacy,

Kind of like these guys?

I started to use ixquick (which is the same) a long time ago. They also support TLS/SSL, and have their search form tells the browser to make POST requests rather then GET. This means that when I click on a link returned by a search, the target site doesnt know from the referrer what search terms I entered.

The only drawback is that it's marginally slower, but after a month of using it you won't notice that anymore.

Too bad ixquick's search results suck.
Not as much as the other search engines but they're far away from google's.

A plus to using ixquick compared to SEs like http://www.ecosia.org/ is that they are ssl capable so you can use https://www.ixquick.com/ so nobody but them sees your search queries.

From the FAQ:

European Privacy Seal On July 14th 2008 Ixquick received the first European Privacy Seal from European Data Protection Supervisor Mr. Peter Hustinx. The Seal officially confirms the privacy promises we make to our users. It makes Ixquick the first and only EU-approved search engine. Both EU Commissioner Viviane Reding and Dr.Thilo Weichert, German Privacy Commissioner complemented Ixquick on its privacy achievements. You can find the press release here.

Since I am in EU, it also means US can't just randomly get data that doesn't belong to them, ie. for people from other countries. Frankly, EU and European countries take privacy a lot more seriously, for historical reasons too.

I'm pretty sure the NSA doesn't care about the European Privacy Seal.

While I would love to see a good rant towards Google and while I also myself use Scroogle, the summary isn't really being truthful. Google hasn't blocked anything, they just changed the page that Scroogle scrapes and they're throwing a hissy fit about it.

From the Scroogle announcement:

We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google.

That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during that entire time.

Now that interface is gone. It is not possible to continue Scroogle unless we have a simple interface that is stable. Google's main consumer-oriented interface that they want everyone to use is too complex, and changes too frequently, to make our scraping operation possible.

Google changing something isn't exactly "blocking" a third party service. Even more so, it's just a few lines of code to get the results from main Google search too. All the search results and links have approciate html ID's associated to them and it's been the same for years already.

I have no idea why Scroogle is bitching about this.

Oh well. I changed to use ixquick, which also has the added benefit of being located in the Germany rather than US and a lot better and useful interface.

-sopssa

If Microsoft and Google are any indication, there is no large corporation Sopssa won't defend and make an apology for.

From the FAQ:

European Privacy Seal
On July 14th 2008 Ixquick received the first European Privacy Seal from European Data Protection Supervisor Mr. Peter Hustinx. The Seal officially confirms the privacy promises we make to our users. It makes Ixquick the first and only EU-approved search engine. Both EU Commissioner Viviane Reding and Dr.Thilo Weichert, German Privacy Commissioner complemented Ixquick on its privacy achievements.
You can find the press release here.

Since I am in EU, it also means US can't just randomly get data that doesn't belong to them, ie. for people from other countries. Frankly, EU and European countries take privacy a lot more seriously, for historical reasons too.

While I would love to see a good rant towards Google and while I also myself use Scroogle, the summary isn't really being truthful. Google hasn't blocked anything, they just changed the page that Scroogle scrapes and they're throwing a hissy fit about it.

From the Scroogle announcement:

We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google.

That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during that entire time.

Now that interface is gone. It is not possible to continue Scroogle unless we have a simple interface that is stable. Google's main consumer-oriented interface that they want everyone to use is too complex, and changes too frequently, to make our scraping operation possible.

Google changing something isn't exactly "blocking" a third party service. Even more so, it's just a few lines of code to get the results from main Google search too. All the search results and links have approciate html ID's associated to them and it's been the same for years already.

I have no idea why Scroogle is bitching about this.

Oh well. I changed to use ixquick, which also has the added benefit of being located in the Germany rather than US and a lot better and useful interface.

-sopssa

http://www.yauba.com/
https://www.ixquick.com/
http://www.cuil.com/

- gives just as good of results as google
- has a history of protecting privacy (google resisted a court order from the government as much as they could. other search engines happily complied)

http://ixquick.com/

I've been using them for years, and it's continually improved. I replaced the default search engine in Firefox with Ixquick HTTPS search. My searches are sent via POST and travel over HTTPS. My IP is *never* recorded.

The results that Ixquick gives me are very good. Occassionally, I'll use something different like Yahoo, but that is very infrequent. They also offer a proxy service, though I haven't used it.

I'd hope most Linux users realise all the major search engines suck equally and use alternatives that respect their privacy.

Here's an even better link:

https://www.ixquick.com/

http://www.ixquick.com/ -- there ya go.

You can even google it ;-)

But.. then google would know that you're googling for a non-google google! *head explodes*

I'd pay a subscription for such a thing.

http://www.ixquick.com/ -- there ya go.

You can even google it ;-)

Simply use https://ixquick.com/ since it searches Yahoo! and many search engines. It has no logs, no IP, nothing! In this way, you can use your precious Yahoo! while truly being protected.

I've switched to using

• http://ixquick.com

It's a meta search engine that focusses on privacy by not logging your IP address and your searches. On the technical side, it's nearly as good as the big name search engine I used previously.

Here's a plugin for GNU IceCat / IceWeasel / Firefox: Ixquick, or the https version (which I haven't tried, but I guess is the same to users).

One hiccup: their ads system uses Google ads. Maybe they've implemented this in an anonymous way. I hope they have, but either way, at least with ixquick there a hope of privacy, unlike Google.

I've switched to using

• http://ixquick.com

It's a meta search engine that focusses on privacy by not logging your IP address and your searches. On the technical side, it's nearly as good as the big name search engine I used previously.

Here's a plugin for GNU IceCat / IceWeasel / Firefox: Ixquick, or the https version (which I haven't tried, but I guess is the same to users).

Er, Bing might not be 'as worse' as Google anymore when it comes to privacy, but I definitely wouldn't say it's "done correctly" either.

You may want to check out ixquick, a meta-search engine that doesn't log your IP etc at all -- that surely beats deleting some info after some time in my book.
(better yet, ixquick is also available over SSL, in case you're concerned about your ISP snooping too... Oh, hello Comcast...)

Er, Bing might not be 'as worse' as Google anymore when it comes to privacy, but I definitely wouldn't say it's "done correctly" either.

You may want to check out ixquick, a meta-search engine that doesn't log your IP etc at all -- that surely beats deleting some info after some time in my book.
(better yet, ixquick is also available over SSL, in case you're concerned about your ISP snooping too... Oh, hello Comcast...)

IXquick/StartPage don't use tracking nonsense. http://ixquick.com/ http://startpage.com/ cheers!

If you value your privacy, use Ixquick.

It's a meta search engine that goes through Bing, Yahoo, and many others. Then, Ixquick sorts the results by how popular the results were with all of the search engines.

Ixquick has NO logs of your searches.

Ixquick does NOT keep IP addresses.

The only downside is that Ixquick is ugly.

https://us2.ixquick.com/eng/

Would that really be bad? At first glance, yes. On the other hand, if Microsoft has tons of IP adresses compared to "Microsoft Sucks", then the first link would be the official website. Not a bad deal uh?

Also, the search results would be based on links first and foremost, but with a rating you could get a better idea of what to select. I'm using http://www.ixquick.com/ and the first results are rated based on how many other search engines have these results in their top 10. Ratings can help and those by users could be useful. Or add the ratings to the search results without affecting the order in which they are listed?

Ixquick deletes logged data within 48 hours and does not record your IP address.

I also found this link interesting (from 2007).

https://ixquick.com/

Alternatively, you can support https://us2.ixquick.com/eng/ which has fairly acceptable search results and they do not keep any logs of searches and IP addresses.

I use ixquick.com which claims to be the only search engine which does not collect your IP address. They have also recently started going by the alternative name name of startpage.com. You can access them by either name or URL.

http://ixquick.com/
http://startpage.com/eng/protect-privacy.html

No one mentioned http://ixquick.com/ as an alternative from there page : Ixquick Protects Your Privacy ! The only search engine that does not record your IP address. http://ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html running mozilla recommends bing as a search brings up http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/12/11/mozilla-and-firefox-veteran-citing-ceo-eric-schmidts-latest-ou/ as the first hit and this Slashdot story a the fourth hit .

No one mentioned http://ixquick.com/ as an alternative from there page : Ixquick Protects Your Privacy ! The only search engine that does not record your IP address. http://ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html running mozilla recommends bing as a search brings up http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/12/11/mozilla-and-firefox-veteran-citing-ceo-eric-schmidts-latest-ou/ as the first hit and this Slashdot story a the fourth hit .

It seems like Slashdotters have some kind of aversion to SSL. Below are some example URLs to help cure this sickness:

Ixquick
Wikipedia
TPB

Why recommend people go into the jaws of likely an even more untrustable giant corporation? Why not use a search engine actually dedicated to privacy, like ixquick? See: http://www.ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html

Ixquick is a search engine whose MAIN purpose is to protect your privacy. http://ixquick.com/

If they have concerns about privacy, why not switch to ixquick or scroogle?

https://www.us.ixquick.com/eng
https://ssl.scroogle.org/