10 Best Private Search Engines in 2023 (Secure + No Logs)

HarborFront

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This guide aims to be the most in-depth resource available on private search engines. For this 2023 update, we examine the best private search engines, search results censorship, and how to keep your data safe and secure when searching online.

In today’s world, search engines are a necessity to find what you’re looking for online. Unfortunately, however, there are two big problems you will likely encounter:

  1. Search engines that violate your privacy.
  2. Search engines that censor search results.
This private search engines guide will thoroughly examine both of these problems and provide you with the best reliable solutions and alternatives we can find. So let’s begin by examining the first problem with search engine privacy.

The search engine privacy problem​

It is sad to say, but most of the big search engines today serve as data collection tools for advertising companies. That’s right, they collect your private data and use it to make money with targeted ads. This is a booming industry where your data ends up in the hands of third parties and you are the product.

Here is the information being collected by some of the larger (not private) search engines:

  1. Source IP address
  2. User agent
  3. Location
  4. Unique identifier (stored in browser cookies)
  5. Search queries
As you may know, the items you enter into a search engine can disclose highly personal information about you. Things like as medical conditions, employment status, financial information, political beliefs, and other private details. This data can be collected, stored, and linked to detailed digital profiles which can even contain your real identity. The only way to ensure that your data is safe is to keep it out of the hands of the data collectors. To do that, you need to use a private search engine.

Search engine censorship in 2023​

Many people are getting fed up with online censorship, particularly when trying to find specific information that was previously available. Censorship can take many forms. With search engines today, censorship can come from filtering, manipulating, and/or blocking certain search results from appearing.

Unfortunately, the censorship problem affects many of the private search engines for these two reasons:

  1. Censorship flows downhill. Many of the alternative and private search engines are nothing more than private proxies that deliver the same search results from the big players. This means that when Google and Bing (Microsoft) engage in censorship and search result manipulation, so will your alternative search engine that delivers those same results.
  2. Alternative search engines themselves are also engaging in censorship. Recently the CEO of DuckDuckGo announced that they will “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.” We can see both sides to the question of whether or not to engage in censorship given today’s geopolitical events. Nonetheless, this amounts to censorship, which is what many people are trying to avoid.
An exception to this may be with independent search engines that deploy their own crawlers, such as with Mojeek, or Brave Search. Additionally, with Searx, you can select which engines it uses.

So let’s examine some alternative private search engines you can start using today.

The best private search engines​

Finding the best private search engine for your needs is a subjective process. Your circumstances and goals are unique, meaning there’s no one-size-fits-all. Things to consider include:

  • Where is the service based?
  • Where does it get its search results?
  • Can you run your own instance?
In a perfect world, a search engine would give you great results while also respecting your privacy. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect world. Any of the private search engines in this guide could be the best solution for you. But you will need to test drive the ones that look the best to you to see which is really the best fit. Before we start, there is one issue you need to be aware of:

Metasearch vs search: Most private search engines are technically metasearch engines. While a search engine crawls the internet and gathers its own results, a metasearch engine pulls its search results from other search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yandex.

There are also a few search engines that fall in the middle by deploying their own crawler, but also pulling results from other search engines.

Note: This list is not necessarily in rank order. Choose the best search engine for you based on your own unique needs and threat model.

1) SearX
2) Brave Search
3) metaGer
4) mojeek
5) Swisscows
6) Qwant
7) DuckDuckGo
8) YaCy
9) Ecosia
10) Yandex


Read below

 

HarborFront

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There are 2 things in the below Ghostery Glow image

1) It doesn't have a NEWS section. The NEWS section will show the article posted with time and date so you can always look for the latest article. This is found in DDG and some other search engines. FI, metaGer also don't have this type of NEWS section. Its NEWS/POLITICS section works differently.
2) So, the free version of Ghostery Glow comes with very unobtrusive ads (Private Ads), in the form of sponsored search results as mentioned below


1675864823821.png


SearX below has the NEWS section showing you the time and date the article was published. Ads free

1675864751421.png
 
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simmerskool

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Q? never heard of Glowstery, went to their url, search found somewhat obscure website I am aware of, but curious, I saw no links or info at Glowstery about them, like About Us... does not necessarily matter but just the sense I'd like to have some idea who I'm dealing with. Eg, how private are they :unsure:
EDIT found this
 
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upnorth

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2023-02-08_20-45-44.jpg


2023-02-08_20-44-16.jpg


Re-tested yesterday and the result with SearX is surprising. All ad-blocking and tracking disabled on the latest stable version of Opera and Edge. Even went as far as disable the Ghostery extension and that needs to be ON. Got the same SearX result confirmed by another user on Firefox, just in case it was anything on my own system that created the zero result.

Q? never heard of Glowstery, went to their url, search found somewhat obscure website I am aware of, but curious, I saw no links or info at Glowstery about them, like About Us... does not necessarily matter but just the sense I'd like to have some idea who I'm dealing with. Eg, how private are they :unsure:
EDIT found this
Best private? Naah I can't say for sure and in general I use DDG ( DuckDuckGo ). What I do like with Glowstery is their clean main page and along with the Ghostery extension enabled, the less risk of clicking on wrong urls.
 

HarborFront

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@upnorth

Searched using SearXNG on my phone. No need to do anything, just search.

Should be at the below page to do a search

Screenshot_20230209_172834_com.kiwibrowser.browser.jpg


Screenshot_20230209_173140_com.kiwibrowser.browser.jpg
 
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[correlate]

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PRIVACY POLICY​

Gibiru Search operates on https 256 bit encrypted web browsing at Gibiru – Protecting your privacy since 2009 and on both iPhone and Android Apps.

Gibiru does not set any cookies on your device.

Gibiru does not keep any search logs.

Gibiru does not sell your data because Gibiru does not have any data about you or your web browsing history.

Gibiru.io May collect your email address if you provide it to us as it pertains to the Gibiru Token program and may email you from time to time with updates regarding Gibiru Token distribution and or our crowd source scraping app.

Gibiru does not support or condone any criminal activity or that which may cause harm to any individual person, persons or property through the use of its services.

Gibiru may monitor its server logs from time to time to manage bandwidth and site performance. No personally identifiable information like your IP address is accessible or used in these audits.

Gibiru does not protect you from malware, adware or spyware that may already be installed on your device or that might be downloaded onto your device while browsing the internet.
Third parties may be placing and reading cookies if you are using a traditional web browser that does not have cookie blocking enabled. We highly recommend using the Gibiru Wormhole or a VPN tunnel when browsing the internet.

Browse the internet at your own risk.
 

HarborFront

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Ink

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DDG and Ghostery offer multiple products under their Privacy taglines. It's a good choice for some who don't like using multiple developer products.

Extra products from DDG include:
  • Android - App Tracking protection (beta)
  • Android/iOS - Email Protection (invite/activate via app, then app can be deleted) Edit: App no longer required. Get Email Protection: More Privacy, Same Inbox
  • Mac - Privacy Browser for Mac
  • Browsers - DDG Privacy Essentials extension
DDG Search lets users use !Bangs to efficiently switch engines directly from their search bar.

Ghostery also offers products for desktop, mobile and browsers dubbed as their "Privacy Suite".

but just the sense I'd like to have some idea who I'm dealing with
Have you not heard of Ghostery browser extension? They have been around for a long time and market their other products part of the "Ghostery Privacy Suite". Some have issues with Ghostery due to some previous controversies and incidents. You can read more about them at Ghostery - Wikipedia

 
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cryogent

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Review of Gibiru here


BTW, its android app has many trackers
@Correlate Seems interesting....
but I'm concerned about a few sentences in the link posted by @HarborFront to that review...

Ex:
"Gibiru was created in 2009 and has its roots in the hacker community..." --- What?
"And if you look for alternatives to Gibiru the reviews will show that this kind of integrity is quite unusual. So this is a positive sign." ---- How can this be a positive sign?
 
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LDogg

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I always use DDG, but doesn't always warrant the searches I'm after. So unfortunately have to use Google D:

~LDogg
 
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Ink

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I always use DDG, but doesn't always warrant the searches I'm after. So unfortunately have to use Google D:
In recent years, I've always found Google results to be of poor quality compared to other search engines (ie.DDG, Bing, Brave). I've also read posts that Google Search isn't as good as it used to be. What type of searches do not give the right results on DDG?
 
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HarborFront

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In recent years, I've always found Google results to be of poor quality compared to other search engines (ie.DDG, Bing, Brave). I've also read posts that Google Search isn't as good as it used to be. What type of searches do not give the right results on DDG?

Try search "restoreprivacy surfshark review"

If DDG shows the below search result then it's correct

1675948965724.png
 

[correlate]

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Review of Gibiru here


BTW, its android app has many trackers
How about this browser provides many features
This is the free version of it
 

simmerskool

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Have you not heard of Ghostery browser extension? They have been around for a long time and market their other products part of the "Ghostery Privacy Suite". Some have issues with Ghostery due to some previous controversies and incidents. You can read more about them at Ghostery - Wikipedia

I am aware of Ghostery extension, was not sure it was related to search engine, I also edited my post to show I did find more info about their search engine.
 
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HarborFront

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