Too bad that doesn’t stop the NSA from spying on you.
For what it is worth:
Privacy Policy
In short:
Startpage does NOT collect or share ANY personal information!
Nada. Zilch. Nothing.
The longer version:
Startpage is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of its user community.
This privacy policy details the - very limited and non-personal - information Startpage.com (”Startpage”) may gather and our disclosure policy.
IP Addresses
The IP address that is associated with your search will NOT be recorded.
The only exception is for “abusive” (automated) queriers that rapidly submit many queries to Startpage in a very short time.
Data Collection
We don’t collect any personal information on our visitors. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
When you use Startpage, we do not record your IP address, we do not record which browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Chrome etc.), we do not record your computer platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.), and we do not record your search words or phrases. In fact, the only information we do record is an aggregate total of how many searches are performed on our website each day (a measure of overall traffic), and those overall traffic numbers broken down by language, and statistics on a purely aggregate level.
This zero data collection policy protects your privacy, since your IP address, browser, and platform information can be combined with other data to uniquely identify your computer, your location, or you. It is also important not to record search terms, since they can convey personal information as well. (Think of someone entering their own name and/or social security number.)
Cookies
Startpage does not use identifying cookies.
Cookies are small pieces of data that are sent and saved to your computer’s hard drive when visiting sites.
Startpage uses only one anonymous cookie called “preferences”. This cookie is to remember the search preferences you saved for your next visit. It expires after 90 days.
You can choose to accept or refuse cookies by changing the settings of your browser. It should be noted, however, that your Startpage.com preferences will not work properly if your cookies are turned off. It is possible to accept cookies from selected sites only.
You can periodically delete cookies from your computer’s hard drive, clearing out all historical data that may have been saved from your previous web surfing. If you delete cookies, you will not be recognized as a repeat visitor or viewer when returning to a site.
To promote a cookie-free internet, Startpage has a URL generator which eradicates the need for setting a cookie. It remembers your settings in a privacy friendly manner. It can be found at the bottom of the SETTINGS page.
External Links
As a search engine, and as an advertising publisher, you will find various links on our site, including but not limited to search results and sponsored results. These sites are owned and maintained by independent companies, over which Startpage has no control, and who are not covered by this privacy policy. Startpage is not liable or responsible for the content of these sites, or their collection of information and its use. Please note that this privacy policy applies only to the Startpage.com website. Startpage offers a proxy function that allows the users to see the information on external sites without disclosing their IP address to these site. Furher information on this great privacy tool can be found here.
Email addresses
When you send comments, questions, suggestions, or feedback to Startpage via email, and include an email address and/or contact information Startpage may use this information to respond to you.
Startpage will not sell or disclose your contact information to any third parties. We may, however, very occasionally send emails to our users regarding Startpage company information. This service is opt-in and includes the option to unsubscribe.
Children Under 13 Years of Age
Note that we do not collect any peronal data at all.
As a consequence Startpage does not knowingly request, collect, or share personally identifiable information from users under the age of 13 either. We feel protecting children’s privacy online is very important.
Information Sharing
Startpage has no personal information to share.
Startpage does not share personal information with any third party search engine or the provider of its sponsored results.
Click here for details. Governmental requests:
Startpage is headquartered in The Netherlands, Europe. Any request or demand from any government (including the US) to deliver user data, will be thoroughly checked by our lawyers, and we will not comply unless the law which actually applies to us would undeniably require it from us. And even in that hypothetical situation, we would refer to the fact we have no personal user data to share.
In the fourteen years we’ve been in business, we have never received such a request.
The only legitimate way that we see to make us start collecting personal information, is if there is a valid warrant or court order, obliging us to do so in relation to a specific user because that person is suspected to have committed a crime which is serious enough to warrant such a restriction of privacy.
Given the strong protection of the right to privacy in Europe, European governments cannot just start forcing service providers like us to implement a blanket spying program on their users. If that ever changed, we would fight this to the end.
Your privacy, our future
We strongly believe that we have the legal right to safeguard the privacy of our users by not collecting and/or encrypting their personal information, and to keep doing so.
Privacy.
It’s not just our Policy - it’s our Mission!
Operator
Startpage.com is owned and operated by Surfboard Holding BV, Postbus 1079, 3700 BB Zeist
The Netherlands. Representative for the Privacy Policy is Robert E.G. Beens. ( robert@startpage.com )