The best search engines focused on user privacy

Because companies are increasingly taking the privacy of their visitors into account, more and more search engines are doing the same. Tracking searches and collecting information about users is something that has been increasingly discussed lately.

To meet the demand for privacy and targeted searches without too many advertisements, more and more search engines support privacy.

This is a list of the best privacy-oriented search engines that you can use as an alternative to Google, Bing of Yahoo can use. All these search engines can be used easily by Dutch users because websites written in Dutch are also indexed.

The best search engines focused on user privacy

DuckDuckGo search engine

DuckDuckGo is an Internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers' privacy and avoiding personalized search results.

DuckDuckGo was founded in 2008 and has since become one of the best-known search engines focused on privacy. DuckDuckGo does not track searches or collect data about their visitors. This makes this search engine a privacy-friendly search engine that also delivers excellent search results.

In addition to the search engine, DuckDuckGo also offers various browser tools to protect privacy. This is a browser extension that helps block trackers, ads and allows for private searches through encryption.

Qwant search engine

Qwant is a search engine founded in France. This means that the search engine complies with European rights. A much-discussed privacy issue is that many search engines are designed in countries outside the EU. This could be a problem when processing data.

The search engine Qwant does not collect data about user searches and does not sell personal data. This search engine is therefore also focused on user privacy. Also, no advertisements are displayed in the search results and no cookies are placed on the device. Read more about Qwant.

Search engine homepage

Startpage is a search engine focused on privacy that is widely used in the Netherlands. That's because this search engine is promoted through a browser extension and offers excellent search results focused on privacy.

The Startpage search engine does not collect or sell data about their users. Ads do appear above the search results.

However, no data such as your IP address is collected and it is not recorded which links you click on. The search engine goes so far as to say that Startpage has no idea who you are.

Read more about Startpage and how to protect privacy.

SearX search engine

A not so well-known search engine, but one that focuses on privacy SearX. Searx is a meta search engine, which aggregates the results of other search engines, but does not store any information about users.

Searx may not give you as personalized search results as Google, but it doesn't generate a profile about you. Searx doesn't care what you search for, never shares anything with a third party, and it cannot be used to compromise you. Searx is open-source software, the code is 100% transparent and you can help make it better. Read more on Github.

If you care about privacy, want to be a conscious search engine user, or otherwise believe in digital freedom, make Searx your default search engine or run it on your own server.

I hope this list of privacy-oriented search engines has helped you make a choice. Thank you for reading!