Lots of other choices : https://searx.space
this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Privacy
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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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Or you can host your own instance quite easily. If you want just a new instance, pick one from the list above. Everyone who intends to run a public instance can enter it there and you're sure, that this person intends that instance to be public.
You know that hosting your own instance means unless you've people using it you'll lose anonymity. The big advantage of those public instances is that many people use them mixing your searches with others.
You know that hosting your own instance means unless you’ve people using it you’ll lose anonymity. The big advantage of those public instances is that many people use them mixing your searches with others.
That argument has been seen posted before, but is it really true ? Will Google, Bing, or any of the other search engines that you configure in your SearXNG instance really create a profile based on your searches and then know (SearXNG is supposed to proxy only and not show your real IP) it is you ?
Yes its true, it's obvious, all your queries will come from the SearXNG server IP and they'll eventually match to the the information / account / other addresses they already have on you.
Yes its true, it’s obvious, all your queries will come from the SearXNG server IP and they’ll eventually match to the the information / account / other addresses they already have on you.
I assume that SearXNG as a proxy will not show your real IP address, nor with it show which monitor resolution and which web browser you use, to the search engines that the instance will query.
You buy a VPS that has a static IP to run your private instance. Then search engines will log the VPS IP for every single search query, with a bit of time/data they'll be able to tie that IP address to your profile. All it takes is for you to open a few websites that use google analytics with your adblocker disabled for some reason and... game over.
I see your point. One solution : run Pi-hole in your local network to block analytics.
I bet google has 200 more ways to cross records and detect whenever you're proxying your queries.
I pipe mine through a vpn, should look like anyone elses searches...
No because you're most likely the only one running a SearXNG instance on that VPN public IP. Google will eventually cross reference information and figure out that queries coming from that IP are only yours.
Not so sure about that, are SearXNG immeadiately identifiable as such, if not it just looks like any other search. Also does the evil eye actuaully care about edge cases like self hosted SearXNG? Still, might be nice to rotate the exit node...
ETA I also keep google off for default searches, and use it by bang only when other things fail, a rare occurrence.
Yes, but its always a question of what providers do you trust.
Agreed. Trust is always a thing on the Internet. And uptime too. searx.be / yewtu.be (From the same person. They posted when their previous provider took them down) has been stable and useful for me for a long time. I do trust Disroot and they have search too : https://search.disroot.org If it does not work you can complain via their XMPP chat, or file a bug at one of their other services.
What's your level of trust in their provider, netcup? For instance I would never trust anything hosted at Hetzner and Linode because they've been known to intercept traffic.
What’s your level of trust in their provider, netcup? For instance I would never trust anything hosted at Hetzner and Linode because they’ve been known to intercept traffic.
Interesting. Do you have sources for this statement ?
Thank you.
note that basically any ISP will intercept traffic if asked by a government - they're literally legally required ro
TIL about searXNG
You can find new instances here: https://searx.space
You might also want to give Kagi a try. It's paid though.