In 2008, the first privacy-focused search engine emerged on the scene - DuckDuckGo. The company was the first to bring consumers a search engine designed to protect consumer privacy as they searched online. By 2018, DuckDuckGo had 16 million searches a day, and by 2019, that number had jumped to 36 million searches.
Now, more than ten years later, privacy and search continue to evolve.
Privado is a new private search engine from CodeFuel, which allows consumers to protect their right to online privacy. Search results are powered by Bing and driven by the consumer’s search query and not by their demographics or personal data
“Online privacy per se is not a new issue. But what we have seen until recently, is that a relatively narrow segment of users care enough to take action, mainly tech-savvy users, who understand how companies feed off their data,” said Tal Jacobson, General Manager of CodeFuel. “With the growing number of data breaches we hear about every other day, privacy concerns have finally made it to center stage.”
Jacobson says he strongly believes we have come very close to the privacy tipping point when people realize that this is just too much.
“Think for a moment about the millions of parents out there, who have just heard about the accusations against TikTok secretly gathering user data and sending it to China,” added Jacobson. “Think about the Millions of users across social and search and how their data is used and abused to make more money, without their permission.”
Jacobson adds that users are waking up, and search privacy is making its way to the mainstream. “Privado enables users to realize the benefits of internet search without anxiety about their most intimate behaviors being observed and tracked.”
As consumer awareness increases around data and privacy, their actions have shifted as well. According to a data privacy and security report from RSA, 78 percent of consumers polled said they take action to limit the amount of personal information they share online.
[Source: This article was published in forbes.com By Jennifer Kite-Powell - Uploaded by the Association Member: Dorothy Allen]
