How can someone perform anonymous searches on the internet today, when privacy on the web is so limited?
Why make anonymous searches on the internet?
As we browse the internet advertisers collect personal data and preferences about each of us. We have reached the point where we no longer even know exactly what personal data they record and store. As a result, many people around the world have begun to show interest in alternative search engines.
These are search engines that do not log our online activity or our search queries for the purpose of serving targeted advertising.
In this article, I will refer to one such search engine: Disconnect Search, a search tool that prevents access to your browsing and location data by blocking the transmission of related information.
What Disconnect Search is and how it works
Disconnect Search also functions like a VPN, hiding your IP address, browser cookies and other personal information each time you perform a search, so that search engines and internet service providers cannot track your queries.
The developers behind the Disconnect Search project have specialised in data security for years; three of them previously worked at Google and the NSA. The project started many years ago and more recently became an organisation that merged with another well-known company sharing the same philosophy on personal-data management: DuckDuckGo.
As a search engine, it returns excellent results—whatever you search for—thorough and neatly categorised. In terms of usability, it has nothing to envy from the well-known search engines. It is definitely worth trying so you can form your own opinion—and it costs nothing.
During my time browsing with Disconnect Search, I noticed both speed in retrieving results and reliability in those results. Reading the platform’s transparency policy, they guarantee the following:
- They do not collect any of your personal information, including your IP address, except for information you voluntarily provide.
- They do not sell personal data to advertisers or other third parties.
- They retain any personal data—excluding information you make public—for no more than 30 days.
- They have never received legal or governmental demands for user information.
Finally, Disconnect Search can also be installed as an add-on (extension) in any browser you use, and it works with search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Blekko and others. In this way, directly from your browser, you prevent search engines and internet service providers from tracking your searches and recording sensitive data about you.
Try Disconnect Search and you will see how useful a tool it is for protecting your privacy.
