Been using SearXNG for about a year now, and I just can’t deal with instances constantly getting blocked by search engines anymore. So I’d like to find something a bit more reliable. I’ve read that DuckDuckGo has had some controversies in the past, and I wouldn’t touch Brave with a 39 and a half foot pole.
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I selfhost SearXNG and route it’s traffic through a VPN. I rarely get blocked by search engines, and when I do I just change the VPN server. You lose the benefit of your data being intermixed with everyone elses on a shared instance, but you still get the other privacy improvements from SearXNG
What are the controversies with DuckDuckGo? I’ve never heard of anything.
Their browser is sharing data with MS, since they’re using their services instead of Google. They’ve been upfront about it and explained there is no way around it.
As long as you just use their search engine, you’re fine.
In addition to the Microsoft trackers, I referenced this as well in another reply in this topic:
https://reclaimthenet.org/duckduckgo-down-ranking-russian-disinformation
There are plenty of other sources that also reported on this.
The DDG problems where with their app because it had some Microsoft tracker in, nothing with the search engine.
The Microsoft trackers issue is bad and they eventually had to address it due to the backlash, but that’s not the only issue.
They also began explicitly censoring search results and information. Regardless of any given persons stance on any particular issue, things like censoring or downranking particular results or labeling content mis, dis or mal information means an entity like DDG is acting as an arbiter of truth and limiting the information users have access to rather than acting as a tool for users to utilize in searching for info and presenting any and all viewpoints, allowing the user to make up their own mind.
https://reclaimthenet.org/duckduckgo-down-ranking-russian-disinformation
DDG does not index .onion websites, is it censorship?
And downranking search engine optimized Covid and Russia desinformation is part of being a useful search engine. If you search for “Ukraine” and the first 20 results are obviously Kremlin propaganda, your search engine is trash and nobody will use it because the results are unreliable at best.
The tracker issue had and has nothing to do with the search engine, just with the app. Yes that wasn’t a good thing but rather insignificant.
Search (pun) for a SearxNG (read as searching) instance.
It’s an open source meta search engine. You can make it even more private if you selfhost it.
OP said they want to stop using SearxNG.
Also, selfhosting it makesist less privacy friendly, if you are hosting it only for yourself, as the search engines your instance is contacting can easily determine that all those searches are coming from a same IP. Sp, even if it is preventing the telemetry collection, a detailed profile can be made on the person hosting it. Butiff multiple people are using it, profiling becomes difficult. Same is the case with using self-hosted VPNs. They are good against censorship and for some other things, but not for privacy.
Oh, thank you for correcting me! It’s right there and I didn’t see it. My bad.
You raise good points. I confess I hadn’t thought about it like that. So, not only you corrected me, you also enlightened me. I’m today’s lucky 10000!
