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How private is the Presearch search engine? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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I've been trying to find a good privacy respecting browser, but I can't really decide on what to use. I don't like the search results with Brave Search. DuckDuckGo shares my information with Microsoft and SearchXNG shows me NSFW images even with strict search on. I really like Presearch, but I'm not really sure what they're about.

EDIT: After tinkering with the settings of my SearXNG instance, it seems to have reduced the amount of NSFW images. I think I will stick with SearXNG for now.

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[-] asudox@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 2 weeks ago

The best is to self host your own SearXNG metasearch engine.

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 10 points 2 weeks ago

Does that not defeat the point, because then they can see that the searches are coming from your location/internet?

[-] asudox@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 weeks ago

I host my searxng instance on a hetzner vps so my ip is not leaked anywhere.

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

Care to explain how?

[-] asudox@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 weeks ago

The search requests are being made on my behalf on the host (in my case, the hetzner VPS).

[-] RiQuY@lemm.ee 7 points 2 weeks ago

But they are always coming from the same IP, so you are still identifiable. If you want increased anonymity you need more people to use your instance to mix the search topics.

[-] asudox@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 weeks ago

I don't really care about anonymity much. Privacy != Anonymity.

It seems like some people use my searxng instance sometimes. It's not locked after all.

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago

That changes things a lot.

[-] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

You can host if on a vps, use it behind a vpn, or make a whole group of people using it so you don't know from who these requests were

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago

The vpn, sure, but if you host it on a vps (and don't make it public) then all of the requests are coming from the vps's ip. This is private, but not anonymous.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I have started using a public instance because of this.

[-] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

The problem is that you can't customize default settings

[-] asudox@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 weeks ago

and they get rate limited often.

[-] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

Even with a VPN I don't know if request are really that anonymous (anonimity is almost impossible to get)

[-] geography082@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago

This

[-] cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 weeks ago

What does DDG share with Microsoft?

[-] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It's probably not that big of a deal, but I just don't want anything to do with Microsoft.

[-] Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago

So they only share when you click on an ad. I use an adblocker anyway, so effectively they're not sharing anything. Or do I misunderstand?

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 14 points 2 weeks ago

I think it’s more of a trust issue.

[-] EmbarrassedDrum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Exactly. It's sorta like all or nothing. If they share this, go figure what else. And maybe you misunderstood or missed some other parts.

[-] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I trust a search engine if I can turn JS off and still get results.

I just use Duckduckgo Lite with Ublock Origin, NoScript, LocalCDN, Libredirect, and Chameleon extensions on hardened Firefox fork.

A self hosted Searxng would also be a good option though.

[-] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 weeks ago

I like DDG lite a lot, but I need to be able to search for images :c

[-] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

You can still use lite and then use bangs. !ddgi myimagesearch will immediately redirect you to ddg images. Duckduckgo has a plethora of useful quick search shortcuts called Bangs. Even if you don't use lite, bangs are worth looking into imho.

[-] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

Oh cool. I will check it out later =]

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

You can disable the ads in settings

[-] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 10 points 2 weeks ago

I can only say good things about kagi. They let you adjust your search results according to how much you trust a given source, and the business model makes sense. You pay them, they give you a service. Heck, if you pay for unlimited searches, they have an actual incentive to make you search less and make you find results quickly

[-] dudenas@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 weeks ago

Kagi uses russian Yandex and pretend it is neutral "business as usual":

https://kagifeedback.org/d/5445-reconsider-yandex-integration-due-to-the-geopolitical-status-quo

[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 weeks ago

Depending on what you’re searching for, Yandex might be the better option though. For example, things relating to piracy are probably going to be easier to find on Yandex than Google, because corporations file billions of DMCA notices every year. It’s one of the reason I use SearXNG, so I know I’m not getting the corporate sanitized version of the web.

[-] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Another $10 subscription just to browse the web.. I don't think it's for me.

[-] kryptonidas@lemmings.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

You pay with money or privacy, but pay you must. 😉

[-] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago

SearXNG seems to be free and private, checkmate!

[-] kryptonidas@lemmings.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I stand corrected:

You pay with money or privacy, or nothing but then you should. (Or support in another way). 😉

[-] blackberry@midwest.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

you're still paying for server fees and free labor from the developers

[-] kekmacska@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

If you pay for privacy, other than a vpn provider, you are a victim already

[-] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 2 points 2 weeks ago

My issue is not payment itself, but rather tying all my searches to a single identity. While it seems like they resolved the issue of only accepting KYC (although the only crypto accepted is Bitcoin, which has bigger fees than Monero as well as privacy issues, and to my understanding, Lightning is harder to self-custody), the absolute linkability remains.

[-] Ballissle@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago

Have you considered StartPage ?

It returns google results whilst stripping of all google tracking and does not track itself either.

[-] irotsoma 12 points 2 weeks ago

There's some concern now that Startpage is majority owned by an ad company. The company says they want the ad revenue rather than the user data, but it's hard to trust that. I used to use it but moved to Searxng.

[-] Ballissle@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 weeks ago

I tried Searxng but it just wasnt giving good results at all. And lacked far too many features of a modern search engine imo.

The thing is you kinda have to trust the word of all companies with how they collect your data and how they monetise themselves. I still think startpage is one of the best alternatives for privacy. Also my adblockers seem to work fine on startpage's ad links so i dont see them.

[-] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 weeks ago

Startpage seems like a pretty good alternative. I read their privacy policy and it looks pretty solid.

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

whoogle is also similar

[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 2 weeks ago

It seemed extremely sketchy to me, most results were from other engines and it was embracing some weird crypto.

[-] CashDragon@realbitcoin.cash 5 points 2 weeks ago

Not sure about the privacy of Presearch but their results are really good. A few times already I was searching for something I know existed out there and only Presearch was able to find it.

[-] LambdaRX@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

You can combine search engine of choice with anonymity provided by TOR browser.

this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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