Oddbean

Leaked Lies at Google Google accidentally leaked their search API on Github, giving everyone insight into that they: --Lied that they track users clicks as a factor for search rankings [1][3] --Lied about using data from Chrome browser for search, including clicks. This contradicted their sworn testimony to the Department of Justice on anti-trust. [1][3] --Lied about having a sandbox (to prevent "some" new sites from ranking) [1][2][3] --Purposefully gave smaller "personal" sites their own category which ranked lower, EVEN IF they had more relevant information. To favor larger brands. [3] They after removed the leaked data, but it was already published under an Apache open source license. [2] So now anyone can do whatever with it. The irony of Google having crappy privacy. What should you use instead? Use a variety of engines. Mojeek: Best privacy, but they aren't as well-funded. You gotta know what you want in advance MetaGer: On Hetzner, so if you're coming through Tor which Hetzner dominates, its a conflict of interest SearXNG: FOSS front-end for an aggregate. Farside.link has many instances. Duckduckgo: They are not that private, but it pains me to say the results are not that bad. Brave's Search: It's on Amazon AWS, but not bad indepedent results. As a heads up, if you use the Tor Onion it lets you do it without JavaScript. And for Fs sake man, avoid Chrome browser. (Sources in the comments from a burner account)