8 alternatives to Google for staying anonymous and to protect your privacy

Some search engines, such as Google or Bing, collect and store personal data. If you want to look calm, without being tracked (or less) fortunately, there are alternatives. This is not a secret: when you search on Google, the search engine retains a trace - in the form of a small text file, a "log" that contains your query, your IP address and information about your operating system. Google also collects "cookie" files that can trace your browsing history. Purpose of Google: "You understand," to show you ads and earn money by offering your data to targeted advertising companies.

Even Bing, Microsoft, which keeps your personal data - IP addresses, query history, cookies. This data collection is fairly harmless when it is only used for targeted ads, but the Prism case has been through it, revealing data leakage towards intelligence agencies, the NSA.

If you stick to surf in complete confidentiality and protect your privacy, some search engines allow you to do your research safely, without a trace, with relevance in the results as good as those offered by Google and Bing.

Stop the cookies and the collection of IP addresses!

First know that there are anonymous search engines, which do not collect any data. Whoever rises, right now, of course, is the American DuckDuckGo, a metasearch engine, which aggregates the results of fifty engines like Yahoo !, Bing or Wikipedia.

DuckDuckGo is running off the record: it does not store IP addresses and does not collect or cookies or search history. One option to enable HTTPS encryption, which allows you to surf safely. Side efficiency, DuckDuckGo is comparable to Google; with effective research and the findings as relevant. The metasearch currently has just over 5 million queries per day.

A metasearch engine Ixquick, also off the lot. The results of Bing, Ask, Open Directory, Wikipedia, AltaVista, AlltheWeb, AOL, are compiled, and the results are more accurate. Ixquick does not record IP addresses or cookies, and allows you to perform searches anonymously.

Remain anonymous

The publishing company Ixquick also provides a start page that allows you to query Google, but anonymously through their Startpage. Between you and Google, Startpage acts as a proxy, and prevents the collection of personal data. Best of all: if you click on a result, the site where you surf will collect your IP address, but that of Startpage, allowing you to remain anonymous.

Disconnect.me part of a panoply of tools to protect your privacy (private web browser, VPN ...), Disconnect Search is close enough Ixquick: This metasearch engine gathers the results of the search engines of your choice (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go) and does not connect your search to your IP address, allowing again to search anonymously. Note that Disconnect Search is available in web version, but also in the form of browser extension for Chrome or Firefox.

Search without being tracked

Another engine (or meta as interpreted) research, quality will also allow you to remain anonymous: it is the Frenchie qwant, which crosses the results of several engines and social networks, without you and without storing track cookies.

For my part, I also recommend you another powerful new research, Yippy (formerly Clusty). Its special feature: store search results into thematic folders. All this in confidence. Without tracking you. Yippy questions Ask, Bing, Open Directory, Yahoo!, but not Google. "Yippy does not collect historical research or navigation, does not follow user activity and does not store any personal information," says service.

Proxy, and HTTPS encryption

Another interesting search engine: Gibiru. Created in 2009 by the defenders of privacy on the Internet, it does not collect cookies. It also distinguishes your request to your IP address through proxy servers, and allows searches in HTTPS encrypted. This anonymous search engine (which also exists in the form of a Mozilla Firefox extension) and effective (results are as relevant as Google and Co.) can also find content censored on many engines. Note that Gibiru also offers an anonymous IRC chat.

Peer-to-peer engine

But trust a centralized search engine and owner, in other words a company can put off some. For more suspicious, there are free search engines, and decentralized. This is the case of Yacy, an open source search engine "Peer-to-Peer" (P2P)

The principle is the same as the "classic" P2P software: you install software on your PC (available for Mac, Windows, Linux). Other users do the same, and this allows Yacy turn without a central server.

The Yacy server is on all users' computers. The queries are performed on the Net, but also a sort of intranet powered by users, who take part in the content indexing process. The results are decentralized, the requests are indexed in a distributed database, searches are encrypted, no cookies or other tracking devices, and your privacy is protected in finds. If the results are different from those of "big" search engines, they are nonetheless relevant. The strength of collective intelligence is Google and the other engines!