It’s the year 2021, and by now we all know and have heard many times that data is the most valuable form of currency today. There’s also a famous saying that ‘nothing good ever comes for free’. However, keeping the good and the bad of being tracked aside, awareness is a larger issue. Did you know that all the popular search engines are tracking users? Even those that promise privacy.
Common search engines tracking users:
We’ve done this before with the famous news websites and saw the numerous ads and trackers being blocked there, so we decided to run the popular search engines through Snap Search this time and check those out.
1) Google
We blocked 8 trackers on immediate load of search results. However, we also observed that as you scroll the page, more & more trackers get blocked. There’s no limit – it’s insane.
2) DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is famously considered the best alternative to Google for users concerned about their privacy. But what’s up with those ads and trackers on there?
3) Bing
Not many expectations and we aren’t surprised.
4) StartPage
StartPage just loaded 1 that got stuck in our block list – and it’s got to do with AdSense. *Sigh*
5) Yahoo
Yahoo! is one of the oldest players in this space. It’s not a surprise they play the same game with the same tricks.
6) Yandex
Yandex loaded just 1 bad tracker specially designed to track users’ activity on the results page.
7) Ecosia
One of the most disappointing results – all 3 are real bad trackers.
1 made by them, 1 is for Bing, and 1 is Sentry.
8) Mojeek
We saved the only search engine (in our list) that did not track users for the last. We love them for this!
Some Clarity…
Almost everyone with a product on the internet wants to make money off of it. I run Snap Search, I want to try and earn something in return for the amount of effort I’ve put in. However, what’s important is we all have choices. I chose to include additional features for the browser as part of a paid subscription, NOT to track users or sell their data or include ridiculous ads.
Many browsers today come with good ad block tech inbuilt. Many browsers allow the installation of 3rd party extensions for the same. The truth is either of the following:
- Partnership/Sponsorship: The browser partner with certain search engines to add them to the list and don’t block ads etc.
- Not good ad block tech: The ad/tracker/analytics block ability isn’t good enough.
Snap Search always had one 1 goal – 100% privacy! We aren’t big enough or smart enough to preach or call them out, all we just want others to be a aware and make informed decisions on what they use everyday ????
PS: Aren’t using Snap Search yet? Download it now! You can continue using the above (and others) and stay protected online!
