[tor-talk] Scroogle is No More?

[Joe Btfsplk]

On 2/21/2012 9:41 AM, Mr Dash Four wrote:
>
>> Would be interesting to find out which particular aspect of your 
>> configuration
>> is leading to that error message.
> That is not the issue - the fact that startpage is snooping to see 
> whether I use "privacy-oriented browser extension" should be 
> good-enough reason for any sane individual out there to ditch this 
> abomination! Same goes for ixquick as well.
>
Again, the msg you are seeing may not accurately describe the problem.  
Question:  are you using their https address?  Try that - besides, it's 
more private, as explained in the * verification of Ixquick's privacy 
policy *:
https://www.european-privacy-seal.eu/awarded-seals/de-110022/
Excerpt:
> Firstly,  search  terms and IP addresses are not stored in log files. 
> All other types of information (e.g., language and web browser 
> category) do not qualify as personal data. Nevertheless, they are 
> deleted after 14 days. ... Ixquick servers have been configured to 
> handle HTTP requests over secure and encrypted Secure Socket Layer 
> (SSL) connections and Ixquick makes use of the so-called POST method 
> (instead of the GET method) to keep search terms out of the logs of 
> webmasters of sites that users reach from Ixquick's result pages.
Their privacy policy has also been certified by Certified Secure.

Before calling them an abomination, you can't know what the problem is 
at this point.  I've used "privacy oriented browser extensions" & 
Ixquick for years.  It may be a simple problem or something they're not 
aware of.

If trying to use their Advanced Search & save settings, it requires a 
cookie (or instead of a cookie, can create your own persona URL, 
containing your advanced search settings).
Until users actually know what the problem is w/ any software, website, 
they probably shouldn't bash it (just general observation) w/o even 
trying to figure out what the problem is.

I'm pretty confident that Ixquick doesn't care about users hiding 
private info from them.  They don't require cookies (for basic search), 
no java, don't use web beacons / trackers, don't log IP addresses (at 
all) or keep search terms.  That's pretty private.