what is there to configure?
why are the results frustrating? they're google results, minus the search bubble.

why only "limit"? I thought they forward the requests to google, and google does not know at all where they come from (this is an honest question; i might be too stupid to understand how all that works)?

About a year ago or so there was some criticism about DDG (also, do they show ads nowadays?), which made me switch to
startpage.
pity, i did like their results better.
with startpage i have the feeling that google is trying to sell me something, even though it doesn't know who i am.

Making the search the default on ally devices. What can I say? I'm lazy

I'm thinking, just like targeted advertising, that you're full of **** . With all due repsect.

I have, on occasion, connected to the internet through at least three different IP addresses in at least two countries with three different OSs at the same time and I know what the content on YouTube, for example, looks like. I also know that Google do have my usual IP address and if there is any targetting it's a lot less than you'd think.
I post here from conventional IP addresses because I set the account up from one so it makes no difference. Plus I'm not paranoid, just don't like targeted crap.

Plus the OP did not ask about overall security or VPN use, just search engines. All of the rest of this discussion is arguably off topic, if interesting and related. I value the relations, and would like to comment and pull this together a bit.

Some of the tracking is cookie and characteristic based, and that is directly influenced by the browser behavior. On that basis the DIRECT answers to the original question should be of interest to everyone interested in security. The choice and behavior of search engines and the companies (in some cases governments) backing them can be directly affected by other factors, and that makes the relation with browsers, tor, isp, vpn, etc. Despite that, it takes time and careful measurement (arguably assisted by a decent helping of luck) to verify the search engine behavior based upon data available from the client end.

I would love a definitive analysis of the relative security of the search engines, but do not expect that data to ever be available and reliable. If we assume that ANY search engine COULD be subverted, why not take steps to mitigate the risk?
Purifying the traffic using any kind of proxy or agent is clearly of value.
Rotating the engine used to distribute any tracking data collected among vendors prevents it from being collated by any single entity.
Using safe tools that obfuscate traffic at the client end is of some value.
Collection by the ISP is unaffected by most of this, but IS affected by traffic encryption and use of TOR or any public or private VPN.

Given all of that, I still have to return to the original question: which search engines are private.

I do not accept "accurate" as meaning "matched google results", so I do not want to bring that back as important. We have no good definition of "accurate" for this purpose, and until we do it is without meaning. Certainly the major search engines such as google, bing, and yahoo weight the results of any search for their purposes. Other search engines may in an attempt to match or predict YOUR purposes. If they do not look the same, it may not indicate a difference in "accuracy", only in the filtering.

Setting all other considerations aside, and based upon what we DO know, what are the most private search engines?

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The OP is becoming quite repetitive with his/her posts.

Found this interesting blog post comparing DuckDuck and Startpage: http://securityspread.com/2016/10/24...e-2016-update/

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Yes but we can now take advantage of several privacy-minded search engines.
Just as we can create several profiles on our web-browser to differentiate our browsing habits.

On your previous comment you said you have tor and a vpn but you 'don't usually bother'.
But when you do usually bother - you can have several IP addresses, operating from several countries, while using several different distros.

How does that work? Which VPN do you use?

I always thought it would be difficult creating a search engine.
But with Gigablast - an entire search engine is being run by one person.

You would expect that security companies and institutions would do a health check on each search engine and give a fitness rating.
But there doesn't seem to be anything like that on the internet.
Yet some guy can operate a search engine for millions of users from his garage.

It would be interesting to know if there is a trend away from google and towards privacy-concious search engines.
But since there are several search engines to choose from it may be good practice to just use all of them rather than a few or just one.

Your posting style is almost identical in nature to well tuned conversational AI. Interesting.

I have several devices with VPN clients on them and a mobile internet plan. I have a Private Internet Access VPN subscription I use on multiple devices.
The specific scenario I was thinking about when posting was when connecting to YouTube from a hotel room in Rotterdam on a laptop and switching between my phone's wireless hotspot and the hotel's WiFi as well as using a VPN client on each device in order to find the fastest way to connect as well as seeing which videos I was served. I've done similar in Norway also. The conclusion being that YouTube are not tracking, or at least not making use of tracking, individual devices in order to recommend videos. Google search, also, doesn't seem to remember a device -- both seem to track based upon IP address and/or cookies only.

I'm waiting for them to start posting spam links advertising paid VPN's...

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As a "well tuned conversational AI", I find the inference rather insulting.

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So you use mobile internet rather than broadband through a phone line?
And you use a 'wireless hotspot' and a hotel's wifi?
And you're using PIA vpn?

Impressive.

The smartphone has a GPS receiver doesn't it? And even triangulation between mobile phone masts can reveal the user's exact location.
Wikipedia seems to be saying there's a lot of issues with security when using the mobile web.
It's not very encouraging.

Also people on reddit are saying that PIA vpn has given up customer info between July and September 2015 to the authorities.
I saw on Youtube some guy saying when a vpn gives customer info - it's kind of like everyone's info not just one person.
Also the same link shows some people don't think a vpn from the US is a good idea.

I think PIA vpn is fine - people shouldn't be upto no good.
But what do you think?

How long does it take to become a senior member on this site? A long time?
So how long does it take to be viewed as a complete fool? A very short time?

Try to make a relevant contribution.
Try to be helpful and informative.
It's not easy for you though, is it? My posts prove that it's easy for me.

Kindly stay on topic. Good boy.

My big long green bar and honorific title took many years of toil I'll have you know...

Carry on and you'll find out.

The jury is very much out on that one...

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