Startpage

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Startpage
Website logo
the most discreet search engine in the world
Internet search engine
languages 18th
founder David Bodnick
operator Surfboard Holding BV
Registration not possible
On-line 2006
https://www.startpage.com/
old logo (until 2018)

Startpage is a search engine that forwards the entered search queries to the Google search engine and thereby displays the search results anonymously . Startpage wants to guarantee the data protection of its users. Startpage is operated by the Dutch Startpage BV , which is part of Surfboard Holding BV.

Startpage expressly does not use targeted advertising . Instead of evaluating and marketing user data, financing is provided through non-personalized advertising.

With Ixquick , the company offered a second search engine from 1999 to 2016, which was a meta search engine . In March 2016, Startpage and Ixquick were merged, with Ixquick getting the search results from Startpage. Support for Ixquick was finally discontinued in April 2018.

history

Startpage went online in 2006 because many Ixquick users wanted a simpler name. The owner, Surfboard Holding BV, based in Zeist in the Netherlands , therefore published the Startpage website, which anonymously retrieves Google results.

The traffic has increased continuously since then. At the beginning of 2016, around 2.2 million search queries were registered per day from German-speaking countries (around 6 million worldwide).

In 2019, Startpage announced that the US company System1 had acquired the majority of Startpage through its wholly-owned subsidiary Privacy One Group. The management as well as the data protection implementations at Startpage will remain with the Startpage founders, who will continue to hold parts of the company. The company headquarters and operations remain in the Netherlands.

privacy

According to the company, Ixquick / Startpage is the search engine with the world's most effective data protection guidelines. In contrast to Google, Startpage does not record any IP addresses of users. Cookies are also not used to identify users. Furthermore, data is not saved and not passed on to third parties. It is possible to use an encrypted connection. A free proxy service also enables anonymous surfing on the Internet.

In the test by Stiftung Warentest , Startpage 2019 was the test winner due to the flawless data protection declaration. On July 14, 2008, Ixquick / Startpage was awarded the first European data protection seal of approval ( EuroPriSe ). This made Ixquick the first and only search engine that was officially tested and certified in accordance with EU data protection law. The certification was valid (after renewals) until June 2017.

In addition to the Netherlands, some of the Startpage servers are hosted in Palo Alto (USA).

Search results and filter bubble

Startpage generates its hits on the Google database, but uses its own search and ranking algorithms to select hits . Accordingly, the search results are not personalized due to the lack of user tracking , there is no IP- dependent filtering (see filter bubble ) and the hits displayed are not adapted to search queries that have already been made.

See also

  • DuckDuckGo - a search engine based in the USA that claims to not collect any personal information.
  • Qwant - a search engine from France with its own web crawler, which also places special emphasis on data protection.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b What is the relationship between Startpage and Privacy One / System1 and what does that mean for my data protection? In: Startpage.com, November 19, 2019, accessed November 21, 2019.
  2. ↑ Heise online : Anonymizing search engines "Startpage" and "Ixquick" merged , from March 29, 2016, accessed on June 28, 2017.
  3. ↑ Die Zeit : Two Discrete Search Engines Growing Together , March 25, 2016, accessed on June 28, 2017.
  4. ↑ StartPage and Ixquick step up their efforts against data octopuses and mass data storage Startpage press release of March 30, 2016.
  5. ↑ Startpage and Ixquick: Two discrete search engines are growing together
  6. ↑ Why is Ixquick no longer available? Startpage, May 17, 2018, accessed June 26, 2018 .
  7. ↑ 34111280 Surfboard Holding BV ( Memento from July 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  8. ↑ MED engineering : StartPage shows enormous growth , from February 9, 2016, accessed on November 9, 2016.
  9. ↑ In-house traffic tracking: direct queries per day (28 day average)
  10. ↑ Startpage and the Privacy One Group. In: startpage.com. November 14, 2019, accessed November 21, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Search engine test by Stiftung Warentest In: test.de from March 26, 2019
  12. ↑ European Privacy Seal for Ixquick and Startpage ( Memento of March 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  13. ↑ https://www.european-privacy-seal.eu/EPS-en/ixquick-Startpage
  14. ↑ Information on the company: Section Company History , accessed on September 22, 2014.
  15. ↑ Bayerischer Rundfunk : Anonymous search engines: Search without snoopers : "The sister site Startpage works exactly like Ixquick, with the only difference that Startpage uses Google instead of Yahoo, Gigablast and Yandex." , dated December 29, 2015, accessed on September 21, 2016.
  16. ↑ Chip : Startpage or Ixquick - the check : "Startpage and Ixquick are the only search engines in the world that have been certified by external software specialists. Among other things, it was confirmed that no IP addresses are logged and that the search behavior of the user is not tracked becomes." , from January 16, 2016, accessed on September 21, 2016.
  17. ↑ Die Zeit : The crowd should reveal Google's secret , June 6, 2017, accessed on November 10, 2017.