This is a guide to privacy search engines, which are search engines that have a focus on protecting the privacy of its users.
Issues of search engine privacy are those that deal with user data collected by search engines. Such concerns may relate to the logging of individual search queries, browsing history, and IP addresses, as well as the placement of cookies, all of which have to do with user profiling and the collection of identifiable information on users.
Search engines claim that the collection of user data helps to provide better search results to the user, but the concerns are that they can also abuse this information, compromising the privacy of users by selling data to advertisers or making information about private searches available to various investigative bodies, governmental and otherwise.
It is common for search engines to publish privacy policies, which inform users about the types of data that is going to be collected and the purposes for which it is collected. Users rarely read them, however, and those who do won't necessarily understand what they are reading.
Most search engines do collect information about their users. This information is often stored in a database, and connected to individual users by way of a number rather than a name, as a sort of a nod toward privacy. This data may be stored for an extended length of time, often more than a year, and is used to personalize search results for users, and to target advertising. In some cases, data is collected even after the user has left the search engine site, through the use of cookies.
After performing a product search on a search engine, it is not uncommon for users to be confronted with advertisements for that product the next time they log in to their Facebook account. That is an example of targeted advertising.
Many people don't mind that a search engine is collecting data, and may even benefit from the personalization of searches. Others are annoyed, and even frightened, by the practice.
In order to meet the needs of the privacy concerned segment of the search engine market, many search engines have begun allowing users to opt out of behavioral targeting and to delete their search and browsing histories.
Other search engines have come on the market with a promise to protect the privacy of their users by not collecting data on its users, not retaining any data that might be collected after the user leaves the site, and not tracking its users. These search engines are the focus of this category.
There is a trade-off between privacy concerns and relevant results when it comes to using a privacy search engine, however. Startpage is well known for its provision of privacy searches. However, although Startpage uses Google results exclusively, search engine results from Startpage are apt to differ greatly from those received on the same query through Google. Another popular privacy search engine is DuckDuckGo, which obtains data from Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Wikipedia, and several other sources while protecting the privacy of its users. Both of these search engines are loved by many, while others insist that they get better results from Google.
The focus of this category is on search engines or metasearch engines whose business model is one of protecting the privacy of their users. Given that we are not in a position to validate or substantiate claims that are made, those who claim that user privacy is central to their business model will be deemed appropriate for this category.
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Created in late 2023, Andi is an AI-powered search assistant that is ad-free and privacy-focused. It uses an AI-powered search engine index designed to deeply understand content, leveraging knowledge graphs, live data, and semantic search technology. Search results are presented in a conversational, visual-first format aimed at younger users, with the intention of rethinking the search interface rather than just the ranking. It explains and summarizes key information from the best sources.
https://andisearch.com/
Developed by Brave Software, Brave Search is the default search engine for the Brave web browser, though you can access it through any browser. Brave Search was developed in 2021 after Brave acquired Tailcat, a privacy-focused search engine from Cliqz. Marketed as a privacy browser, Brave Search uses its own web index to generate search results. By 2025, AI summaries were introduced. Its index is smaller than Google or Bing. Brave Search Premium is a paid tier that is ad-free.
https://search.brave.com/
Hosted in Switzerland, Coocoosearch is a privacy-oriented web search engine that emphasizes anonymous searching. Its brief documentation states that it does not store personal information or search history, does not profile users, and does not display personalized advertising. Coocoosearch offers a minimalist search interface focused on private web searching. Information about the project's ownership, technology, or history does not appear to be publicly available.
https://coocoosearch.com/
Disconnect is a privacy-focused search tool that anonymizes search queries by routing them through Disconnect's servers, preventing major search engines like Google or Bing from tracking searches or locations. IP addresses and identities are hidden from search engines, while users can still get results from Google or Bing without being tracked. It is available for Chrome and Firefox for seamless private searching. Disconnect states that it does not store or track personal information.
https://search.disconnect.me/
DuckDuckGo is an Internet search engine that stresses the protection of the privacy of its users. It does not profile its users, or log user information, and it shows all users the same results for a given search term. A metasearch engine, DuckDuckGo generates results from more than four hundred individual sources, including Wikipedia and other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex, as well as its own spider, identified as DuckDuckBot.
https://duckduckgo.com/
Based in Berlin, Germany, Ecosia is a search engine that contributes to non-profit organizations that focus on reforestation. It also protects the privacy of users, using encrypted searches which are not stored permanently, and data is not sold to third-party advertisers. According to its privacy policy, personal profiles based on search history are not stored, nor does it use external tracking tools like Google Analytics. Its results are provided by Bing and enhanced by its own algorithms.
https://www.ecosia.org/
Gibiru is a search engine that focuses on privacy, prioritizing anonymity and security for its users. Gibiru offers a unique alternative to mainstream search engines by not tracking user data or storing search history, resulting in a level of privacy that traditional search engines lack. The engine uses a proxy network to ensure user anonymity, allowing users to browse the Internet without leaving a digital footprint. Another of its goals is to provide unbiased results.
https://gibiru.com/
Kagi is a premium (paid) ad-free search engine founded in 2018 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Kagi functions as a metasearch engine to aggregate search results from other established search engines (Google, Brave Search, Mojeek, Yandex), and uses its own indexes for websites and news, although that index is used only for small-web searches. Its website states that Kagi does not collect user actions such as searches. Users can authenticate as a paying user without being identifiable.
https://kagi.com/
Based in Germany, an English version of MetaGer was made available in 2013, and its source code was released on Gitlab in 2016. Hosted as a joint project of the SUMA-EV - Association for Free Access to Knowledge and the University of Hannover, MetaGer is a search engine built on more than twenty small-scale web crawlers under Meta-Ger’s control. A central focus of the search engine is privacy and data protection. Users may search the Web, pictures, or shopping.
https://metager.org/
The UK-based search engine returns results from its own index, collected by its own bots. Started in 2004 as a personal project of Marc Smith at the Sussex Innovation Centre, and operated through servers located in his bedroom, Mojeek was incorporated in 2009 and, since 2013, its servers are run from the Custodian data centres in Maidstone. The search engine promises to provide search services, with independent and unbiased search results, with no tracking.
https://www.mojeek.com/
PrivateSearch is a free, open-source front-end to public SearxNG instances. A metasearch engine, it aggregates results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and others, while stripping away tracking parameters and anonymizing results. PrivateSearch does not have a backend database; queries are passed directly to the chosen SearxNG instance and are not logged on its servers. Different instances have different uptime and rate limits. If one fails, switch to another from the dropdown.
https://privatesearch.pro/
Headquartered in France, one of the operating principles behind Qwant is the protection of users’ privacy and freedoms, promising user privacy, unbiased results, and a panoramic search. User data is not recorded and personal data is not used for advertising or other purposes. Its search utilizes Bing results as well as other data which are not acknowledged on its site. Users may search the Web, social media, images, video, shopping, or news.
https://www.qwant.com/
Startpage began as a sibling project of Ixquick, a metasearch engine that was founded in 1998 and was merged under the Startpage label in 2016. Known for its protection of users’ privacy, Startpage does not record user IP addresses and offers a stand-alone proxy service, as well as an encrypted email service, known as StartMail. Startpage does not include its own index, but uses Google results exclusively, although without Google’s personalization features.
https://www.startpage.com/
Stract is an open-source search engine that lets users see what is going on and customize almost everything about their search results, positioning itself as a search engine "made for hackers and tinkerers." It does not render search results that do not contain all of the terms in the query. In other words, the search engine does't try to guess what you really means; you get what you search for. Its stated values include complete transpareency, privacy, and customizable.
https://stract.com/
Launched in 2014 by the Swiss software company Hulbee AG, Swisscows is a privacy-centric search engine that prioritizes user anonymity by refraining from storing search queries, IP addresses, or any personal data, thereby avoiding tracking mechanisms common in mainstream search services. Swisscows employs its own servers and adheres to Switzerland's stringent data protection standards, featuring a default family filter that excludes explicit content to promote safe browsing.
https://swisscows.com/en
The Seekly web search provides users with search privacy. The resources it fetches online (data, images, etc.) go through Seekly's server first before being shown to users, thus ensuring that no one will be able to track down the search requests to a specific user. Seekly does not gather search queries, search history, or clicks, nor does it gather, store, share, or sell any data to anyone, for any purpose. Its website emphasizes its commitment to being a private search engine.
https://www.seekly.net/
Yep is a relatively new search engine developed by Ahrefs that focuses on privacy and rewarding content creators. Unlike traditional search engines, Yep collects minimal user data. It is designed to provide ethical search experiences that promote transparency and fair compensation for creators. Yep is an AI-powered search app that delivers direct answers rather than merely links. YepBot is a web crawler that, along with AhrefsBot, powers the index for Yep, a revenue-sharing search engine.
https://yep.com/
