Internet Search Engines: Your Queries, Your Privacy
Your searches reveal a lot about you—your interests, concerns, plans, and even your personal struggles. But who is actually watching?
Google, Bing, and other mainstream search engines offer convenience, but they also operate as data collection machines. Every query you make, every link you click, and every result you linger on is logged, analyzed, and often tied to your identity. They build detailed profiles to target you with ads, influence your decisions, or even share your data with third parties.
European and other privacy-focused search engines offer a different path. No tracking. No profiling. No selling your data. Many of them don’t even store your IP address or search history. And because they operate under strict European privacy laws like GDPR, you have real rights—including the right to access, correct, or delete your data.
Making the switch is simple.
Below is an overview of privacy-respecting search engines. Click through for details on their features, privacy policies, and how to make them your default.
Our proposed alternatives:
Solution comparison
| Feature | DuckDuckGo | Startpage | Mojeek | Qwant | SearXNG | Bing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy Score Overall privacy rating: Excellent (Green) = No tracking, minimal data collection. Moderate (Yellow) = Some tracking or data collection. Poor (Red) = Extensive tracking and data collection. | Excellent (Green) | Excellent (Green) | Excellent (Green) | Excellent (Green) | Excellent (Green) | Moderate (Yellow) | Poor (Red) |
| Tracking Whether the search engine tracks users or their searches. | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (Microsoft) | Yes (Extensive) |
| Personalized Results Whether search results are personalized based on user data. | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Open Source? Whether the search engine's code is publicly available for inspection. | No | No | Yes (Partial) | No | Yes (Full) | No | No |
| Data Storage Location Physical location of the servers storing user data. | USA | Netherlands / USA | UK | France | Self-hosted | USA (Microsoft) | USA (Global) |
| Ownership Who owns or operates the search engine. | Private (DuckDuckGo, Inc.) | Private (Surfboard Holding BV) | Private (Mojeek Ltd.) | Private (Qwant SAS) | Community / Self-hosted | Microsoft | Alphabet (Google LLC) |
| Funding Model How the search engine generates revenue. | Ads (Non-targeted) | Ads (Non-targeted) | Ads (Non-targeted) | Ads (Non-targeted) | Self-hosted (No Ads) | Ads (Targeted) | Ads (Targeted) |
| Search Index Whether the search engine uses its own index or relies on others (e.g., Bing, Google). | Bing + Own | Google + Own | Own | Bing + Own | Customizable | Own | Own |
| User Base (Est. Monthly Active) Estimated number of monthly active users for each search engine. | ~100 Million | ~10 Million | ~1-2 Million | ~5-10 Million | Varies (Self-hosted) | ~1 Billion | ~4-5 Billion |
*Note on DuckDuckGo: Uses Bing's index for some results but does not track users.
**Note on Startpage: Uses Google's index but anonymizes queries.
***Note on SearXNG: Open-source metasearch engine; users can self-host or use public instances.
****Last updated: May 2026***