20 Times You Should Have Used a Private Search Engine
How would you feel about having your family, friends, and colleagues reading your search history? That includes everything from “Is it donut or doughnut?” to “How to get a divorce?”
Awkward? Embarrassed? Or just plain uncomfortable? You’re not alone. Your search history can tell a lot about who you are – even moreso than your journal or therapist.
FYI: Deleting your search history and using private mode on your browser doesn’t completely erase your online activity. In some cases, your internet service provider (ISP) and non-private search engines can still see what you’re doing. They can still target you with similar content. Fortunately, a truly private search engine can keep your search history private and won’t sell you out. Since private search engines like Startpage don’t collect any personal data, there is no record of your search history.
A private search engine can come in handy a number of ways. We recommend anyone to use a private search engine as their default for all searches. Here’s a list of 20 times you should definitely be searching privately:
1. Online Shopping
You may think, what could be so bad about people and tech companies knowing my shopping habits? Your grocery list and latest order of limited edition sneakers aren’t important, right? The reality is that advertisers consider your search history and online activity valuable information. They use this information to follow you around the web and target you with ads. (https://www.startpage.com/blog/startpage-articles/is-it-a-sale-or-a-targeted-ad)
2. Asking Health Questions
Feeling under the weather? Next time you look up whether you have a cold, flu, or COVID-19, make sure you use a private search engine. Leaving a trace could make you feel sicker since non-private search engines are known to use your search history to keep feeding you similar content. (https://www.startpage.com/blog/privacy-awareness/searching-about-health-can-make-you-feel-sick)
3. Avoiding Censorship
Whether you’re traveling to or living in a country where the Internet is restricted, using a private search engine can open access to sites otherwise inaccessible. Not only does this open up a new channel of information, but it can help folks be exposed to more diverse points of views.
4. Looking up candidates or latest political news
Do you really want your boss to know your political preference? Or have political ads follow you around the web? Probably not. Unfortunately, this is an area non-private search engines look into. If you look up a candidate of a particular party, it may continue to feed you information on similar candidates or political opinions. (https://www.startpage.com/blog/privacy-awareness/dystopian-fiction-or-reality-non-private-search-engines-can-influence-elections)
5. Looking Up Your Ex
We’ve all done this, right? How would you feel if your current partner found out that you looked up your ex and visited a bunch of their social media profiles? We’ll just leave it there.
6. Financial Troubles
If you’re looking up budgeting tips, house loans, or even applying for a new job, your non-private search engine knows it. Financial companies can use non-private search engine data to create profiles on you and predict how likely you are to make a payment on time. (https://www.startpage.com/blog/startpage-articles/will-your-search-history-affect-your-credit-score)
7. Sharing a Computer with Family
Sometimes people aren’t even trying to snoop when they stumble across another person’s search history. It could be as simple as your spouse or child typing “Ha” and autosuggestion filling it in with “Hangover remedies.”
8. Using Your Work Computer
Remember, your boss can monitor your work devices if they wish to do so. And, what if your colleague borrows your computer for a few minutes? Better be safe than sorry. (https://www.startpage.com/blog/privacy-awareness/is-your-boss-monitoring-your-online-activity)
9. Using a Public Computer
You don’t want to leave any personal information behind when you use a public computer. Whether you’re logging into your social media or doing general research, using a private search engine will help keep your search and browsing anonymous.
10. Searching While Inebriated
Whether you’re celebrating with drinks or having a fun night with something a little stronger, you may get the sudden urge to look up information you normally wouldn’t and don’t want a record of.
11. Adult Content
Need we say anything more?
12. Avoiding Creepy Results
You may have looked up an odd combination of words at some point. Based on this, your suggested results may be a bit creepy.
13. Planning a Trip
Going somewhere? If you’re looking into hotels, flights, or car rentals, you may start seeing ads following you around. Worse yet, you may see prices go up. Price trackers keep tabs on what you’re looking up, raising and lowering prices according to search trends and how often you’ve visited a site.
14. Looking up something you’re not sure about
Occasionally we all need to lookup an unknown word. Whether it’s “Queef” or “ACAB,” you may want to not leave a trace just in case it turns out to be NSFW.
15. Buying Someone a Special Gift
Shopping for a special someone? Don’t ruin the surprise by leaving a record of the gift online.
16. Escape the Filter Bubble
Non-private search engines give you personalized results, often leaving out other points of view. This puts you in a filter bubble. A private search engine, on the other hand, gives you a more accurate representation of the web by showing the same results to everyone around the world.
17. Researching for school
If you’re researching drugs or illegal activities for a project, you may want to keep your search and browsing private to avoid setting off alarms. (https://www.startpage.com/blog/privacy-guides/is-the-invasion-of-student-privacy-the-price-for-remote-learning)
18. Enjoying Weird Videos
If you like to watch 10 hours of a cat playing the piano, you can do it without fear of being called a “cat lady.”
19. Giving Presentations
Imagine giving a presentation at school or work. Everyone can see your shared screen and you search for something, only to have autocomplete give your secrets away.
20. Being a Privacy Advocate
You don’t have to be hiding anything to use a private search engine. It can simply be about protecting your privacy and personal data.
Privacy Pro Tip: Deleting your search history doesn’t delete it from the private search engine’s history. Use a private search engine like Startpage to keep your search private. Download the Startpage extension by visiting add.startpage.com.
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