But, before I continue let me just quickly explain two basic things that represent term "privacy" for me. First one is how my computer actually connects to search engine and second one is related if search engine is actually trying to track and log my activities on the Internet. A this point and in user friendly (non technical) manner of this post I won't go to much into details. Let's just say it doesn't matter if it does it by leaving cookies or logging my IP address or any other way.
Now let's go back to connecting and why is it so important to have secure connection between anyones computer and search engine (or even better any other site) and how can this be accomplished. Well this question is actually quite simple to answer. You need only one thing and its called HTTPS connection. As you might have noticed the difference between regular HTTP and HTTPS (HTTP Secure) connection looks quite simple - its just one letter right?
Well it is for most end users, but lets just say (once more not wanting to go any deeper in technical details) the difference on technical side is just a little bit more than "simple". But since we're not technicians here, we will settle down with simple explanation how HTTPS is preventing anyone who might be watching your wired or wireless connection to actually "recognize" what data is actually being transferred between you computer (client) and search engine (server).
When HTTP connection is used anyone watching your network traffic can very easily capture and recognize all of the data exchanged between your computer and in this case search engine (or any other site as well). This is also a reason why all financial and any other important transactions on the Internet are protected with HTTPS connections. On the other hand, when you're using HTTPS connection this cannot happen as all the data transferred between your computer and search engine is encrypted or better to say unreadable to anyone aside.
OK, I guess this little discussion opened at least a dozen of new questions on your side, but if you'll want to find more on what I've just wrote about, first you'll have to keep on reading to find out how to start using secure search engines and then start exploring all the terms you're interested in.
OK, now I've told you in short more or less everything you should know to start understanding the basics of secure/private connection between your computer and search engine, the time has come to start telling you more about search engines that do care about your privacy. As I've already mentioned earlier, search engines (hey, who mentioned Google here?) or better to say most search engines use cookies to track your search and other activities.
Every time you use a regular search engine, your search data is recorded. Major search engines capture your IP address and use tracking cookies to make a record of your search terms, the time of your visit, and the links you choose - then they store that information in a giant database. Those searches reveal a shocking amount of personal information about you, such as your interests, family circumstances, political leanings, medical conditions, and more. This information is modern-day gold for marketers, government officials, hackers and criminals - all of whom would love to get their hands on your private search data. (Source: https://ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html)
If you want to find out more, definitely go to AOL Stalker and find out why are those not just the empty words.
Now, I've probably scared you at least a bit, is there a solution to protect my privacy you might ask? Of course there is a way and here is how you can do it.
There are several secure search engines that can provide you with both aspects discussed here - secure connection between your computer and search engine and search engines that do not log your activity in any way (or at least they claim not to do so, but on the other hand some independent institutions verified they're not doing it).
Here is a list of private/secure search engines ranked by my personal preference:
- StartPage - https://www.startpage.com (read it's Privacy Policy)
- DuckDuckGo - https://duckduckgo.com/ (read it's Privacy Policy)
- Ixquick - https://ixquick.com (read it's Privacy Policy); very similar to StartPage
It would be fair not to mention the biggest search engines of all here (who again mentioned Google!?). How Google processes your search requests and why should you be aware of it, can be found explained here and here. Both links are related to DuckDuckGo search engine, but are nevertheless very true. Also some very useful browser extensions are mentioned there that can help you keep your privacy under your control (I'll write an tutorial about browser extensions in very near future too, so stay tuned to my blog) in an easy and illustrated way.
Anyway, since October 2011, Google introduced similar service - Encrypted Google Search, but don't confuse it with Google's SSL Search. More informations and differences between those two Google's search features can be found here. When you get to this page, search for the term 'SSL Vs Encrypted' (without quotes of course), but I encourage you to read the whole post as well.
Since StartPage search engine has been introduced (most similar alternative to Scroogle) as it is parsing results from Google, you probably won't prefer using Google's searching, but yet I felt like I need to mention Google here as well.
And just remember, stay safe and protected!
If you found this post to be useful please consider encouraging me to keep up the good work. You can easily do it by signing up with Copy.com cloud storage provider. Just click here and you will get 15GB + 5GB for following my link absolutely FREE. This way I'll get 5GB too.
No comments:
Post a Comment