Top 5 reasons to search in private other than your right to privacy

Trying to convince someone to use a private search engine? Here’s a quick list to help you go beyond the privacy rights argument.

“Why should I search in private?” 

One of the biggest reasons for protecting your personal data while you search online is the basic right to protect your privacy..

However, there are more reasons why you should be using a private search engine. Here are our top other 5 reasons why everyone should search in private:

Stop paying more due to search price discrimination

According to Online Price Discrimination and EU Data Privacy Law, online price discrimination is the tactic of “differentiating the online price for identical products or services partly based on information a company has about a potential customer.” This means, when you search with a non-private search engine you can receive “personalized pricing” based on your personal data.

These non-private search engines collect a wealth of personal data to create an online profile from you. It doesn’t matter if you use Private Mode or delete your search history, they know your location, vacation plans, purchase history, level of income, whether you rent or own, etc. And, they use this information to give you lower or higher prices.

Startpage, the world’s most private search, doesn’t collect your personal data. So, you can effectively stop search price discrimination by using Startpage. Everytime you search with Startpage you get prices based on your search query alone, not your online behavior or history.

Prevent annoying ads that follow you around

Targeted ads, or behavioral ads, are a form of advertising that can be directed to specific groups of people based on online behaviors, location, demographics, interests, who your friends are, etc. Non-private search engines, social media platforms, apps, and websites collect all types of personal information to target you with these specific ads that can follow you throughout the internet. 

Some people argue that a targeted ad is only showing you what you want. But, Yale researcher Jiwoong Shin says, “Just because a company is targeting you, doesn’t mean it’s the best product—or even that the product is necessary.” And, what happens when all these Big Tech companies are sharing and selling your personal data to the highest bidder? Big Tech is making money at your expense.

Unlike non-private search engines, Startpage won’t feed you targeted ads or behavioral ads. The ads you see at the top of Startpage results are contextual ads. This means that the ads are based on your search query, not your personal data.

Escape the filter bubble

According to Eli Pariser, the filter bubble “is your own personal, unique universe of information that you live in online.” Algorithms capture your personal data and essentially decide what you see and don’t see. If it knows whether you live in a liberal or conservative state, it may only feed you information from that specific viewpoint.

An easy way to understand a filter bubble is to consider the type of news you’re exposed to. Are they all feeding you the same information or alternate view points? A filter bubble can trap you in one area of the internet, keeping you from getting an accurate representation of the information that’s out there. Should Big Tech have this kind of control? We don’t think so.

Startpage can help you escape the filter bubble by giving you results solely based on your search query. It won’t filter, personalize, or profile what you see. You get the same results as everyone else. Startpage goes further than other private search engines by providing you unfilter, unbiased, and unprofiled results from the largest search index – Google.

Avoid targeted manipulative content

The technical term is “search engine manipulation effect.” It refers to how search engines, advertisers, and content creators may use search results to manipulate people or an outcome.

A study from 2015 showed search engine manipulation could impact close elections by shifting voting preference by 20%. Additionally, search engines that favor search results featuring their own services vs those of competitors could impact what products people use. 

By using Startpage’s a private search engine you can rest assured that you’re receiving unfiltered content, but also keep an eye out for alternating point of views.

Search more sustainably

Much of what happens on the internet relies on millions of physical servers in data centers across the globe, which require a lot of energy to run. Almost 93% of all internet traffic comes from search engines. Therefore, it’s an easy place to start when thinking about reducing energy and emissions.

Due to the fact that Startpage doesn’t collect or store any user data we use fewer resources than non-private search engines, as we don’t have anything to process or organize. Also, Startpage uses data centers that utilize energy efficient, green technologies to reduce the carbon footprint. And, we choose to pay more for search results from Google, which has been carbon neutral since 2007 and aims to be carbon free by 2030.

Last, but not least, let us know why you use a private search engine! Email [email protected] or reach out via social media.