3 ms·
Ask HN: Anonymity (or lack of) on StartPage.com
I would make this short, because I've lost my last submission because of an expired link (my bad)
I've found that the ads (from google) on startpage.com aren't really anonymous, because I found them tied to my country (I've tried the same search from Tor Browser and the ads weren't country sensitive). I understand that the request to get the google ads isnt anonyoums like the search.
So I wonder, Is really useful to have an anonymous search engine if you need Tor in both cases (StartPage vs. Google)?
Is this something important for the most "privacy conscious" out there?
- jsnk 13y agoIt's not bulletproof. Your IP address is extractable from your IP address. StartPage probably requests ads from Google with your search keywords and country your from (found using your IP). Only services like Tor that uses onion routing method to randomize your origin.
- cprncus 13y ago> Your IP address is extractable from your IP address. That's not surprising. ;D
- singold 13y agoI really understand that, but maybe they should tell the users whats going on, because they say that they dont register your IP and dont submit your information to 3rd parties. As far as I understand, the problem is that in the request for ads they leak (want it or not) your IP and then google knows where you are. I find this some kind of awkward because they clearly say in the page "Startpage does NOT record your IP address !" I think that if it is a bug, they should fix it, if it isn't they should tell you about it. We all know that we don't know what any sevice does with the data we submit (hence the need for tools like Tor) but anyway, I feel something is wrong with this.