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Why you should quit using Google Search!

Let's begin with the obvious facts:
Google Search is not prone for its privacy and user anonymity. In fact, the goal of most companies from the valley is about farming data about you. It's not that they want to scam or blackmail you. The goal is to create a personal image of the user to target ads and campaigns for companies that try to reach a specific audience. A vacuum manufacturer obviously tries to reach people that regularly use a vacuum and have an interest in having a nice and functioning one. So, the perfect audience for a vacuum ad could be housewives and professional cleaning companies for example.
Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts about privacy, cookies are one of the main data access points for creating a user profile.
With the help of the EU, users have gained the ability to check the cookie usages on websites and can choose to only save the necessary cookies to have a properly functioning website. 

But there are alternatives in which data can help the environment or keep your data away from advertisement companies while searching. This helps you to avoid checking your Google Account Setting every six months for unexpected changes.


Save the planet: Ecosia Search

Ecosia is particularly popular between teenagers of the millennial generation and has already replaced Google Search for lots of web users. 
It uses Bing Search from Microsoft and is unique because of the fact that every search session of an user has a positive impact to the environment.
It sound shady but is quite simple and innovative: With every search on Ecosia, the user gets a very clearly marked ads. A vast majority of the money earned by these ads goes to projects that plant trees all around the world. Roughly every 45th search equals one newly planted tree.
The company planted more then 77 Million trees by now. 
This alternative is the right one to choose if you care about the environment and want to use even the last possible way of saving the it. 
There is even an App for the Safari Web Browser on MacOS so check it out and give it a try. 
Android users can download the Ecosia Browser onto their phones and tablets. 
Ecosia Search is free and you can always switch between the engines if you find one specific use case where the search results seam inaccurate. 


Privacy all the way: DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo has been around for a while now and has gained popularity because of the recent privacy and data breach issues of many other popular tech companies such as Facebook and Adobe. 
It also relies on the Bing Search Engines from Microsoft and is quite accurate when it comes to searching news, facts or even important things for university. 
DuckDuckGo is claiming to let the users search without being stalked or becoming an object to milk ad-money off with search profiling. 
This alternative is the one to choose, if you what every bit of your searches to be privat and anonymous.
Like Ecosia, this alternative is also free. So go ahead and check it out.


Conclusion

There are many other alternatives and ways to keep your search meta datas away from big corporations. My post obviously tries to lead you to look into other ways to use the web and looking after your data. 
This is just the tip of the iceberg for secure web and computer usage. If you are interessted in topics like these, I would suggest you to follow me on Twitter (@OnurSuembuel) for new updates on privacy and new blog posts. 
Let's keep on looking after our valuable data and support these companies!

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Location: Rhein-Main-Gebiet, Deutschland

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