Many “alternative” search engines are better for privacy, but they are still vulnerable to censorship, because they rely on g**gle and m*crosoft’s indices for their search results. This isn’t a deep-hidden secret either, many of them disclose what search index they use on the “about” page, for example:

There are still search engines that (claim to) maintain their own index. Most surprisingly, br*ve:

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I had a high school friend shill me brave because he worked there. Was genuinely into all the tech bro stuff and gold. So much gold. I used it for maybe 2 weeks before I got tired of the crypto. I should thank him though, that pushed me into FOSSland.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thats nice to know. Their CEO is a massive right-wing dickhead. So it doesnt matter whats optional its not worth it to use in the end.

        • PatMustard@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          You shouldn’t base your browser usage on whether or not the boss is a bigot. How many CEOs of big tech companies do you think are lovely people? There are plenty of real reasons not to use Brave, the founder being a knob is just the icing on the cake.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No, you absolutely should. Don’t use products that enrich pieces of shit. Thats how we got here in the first place by giving the sociopaths the money.

            • PatMustard@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              I hope you thoroughly review the board of executives of every company that provides every product you use

              • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Way ahead of you, pal. Its public information even! Just look up the company name and type “board of executives”. If it is indeed incorporated, it will be public. LLCs are the true tricksters.

                • PatMustard@feddit.uk
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                  1 year ago

                  Buying food must be exhausting. We know Nestlé is bad, but how do you manage to check the parent company of every single food item and go through all the execs’ behaviours to know if they meet your moral standards?

      • renzev@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        opt in

        Unfortunately there is still one thing that you have to opt out of manually, and that is monetized new tab pages. It’s not strictly crypto-related, and it’s only like three clicks to opt-out, but can be slightly annoying if your workflow relies heavily on browser profiles like mine. Still a great browser tho.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve been spelling this for years…

      Why would you trust a browser whose business model is based on user activity tracking.

      Who before they were even remotely popular or profitable had one of the largest ad campaigns I’ve ever seen for a tech product. Who’s funding that and where is their value proposition coming from for that funding?

      Hell no I’m not going to trust it

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        1 year ago

        I’m finding Copilot better than any search and better than buying by itself and world’s better than Google search, but it’s totally not private… So anything you seem sensitive or private you just can’t use it for

        • Doug7070@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          LLM powered search is so great, if it can’t find the information you’re looking for it will just make up random bullshit for you! And all it costs is Microsoft looming over your shoulder to datamine and sell everything you ever do!

    • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In part, yes. Here’s a document explaining it all. In short, they use many different source, of which Bing is one. However when they query for data on those services, there’s no personally identifiable information shared, so they can’t create profiles about you.

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        1 year ago

        Unfortunately, this map isn’t accurate anymore. For example it says that Startpage only uses Google search results but that’s outdated. Now Startpage uses Bing and Google search results. https://www.startpage.com/privacy-please/startpage-articles/enhanced-search-results-on-startpage ‘In working with Microsoft, Startpage is now incorporating Microsoft Bing search results and ads within some results pages, using a custom-built private search solution. Google search results will continue to broadly be used, but incorporating additional high-quality sources will have ongoing returns for our users’

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    1 year ago

    Still Privacy >> Censorship. If the search engine is privacy-friendly then we can talk about censorship. No brave bullshit

    And this should be discussed on [email protected]

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    1 year ago

    Worse are subtle manipulations imho. There are scientific experiments showing that changing the order of search results can alter how people vote. How much outside of the spectrum suppressed because it doesn’t sell as well? Who knows!

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    1 year ago

    These are private companies that are govern and controlled by commercial incentives. And are in their all right to do so. The users are always free to change service.

    But as always, conviniance beats everything. Most people don’t care or are not ready to go back. E.g. use mp3s and manually upload files to choosen device or if even supported. aux contact that was removed. Music and movie resolution loss due to streaming most people don’t care… They are frustrated when the airpod doesn’t work with Android device accept the situation and go along with their lives. Most western people download their games and do not think for a second that all games are useless when an new device is announced and the company can resell same game again even thought if thought from design to be back compatible.

    Censorship are applicable for governments enforcing laws and regulations that impact what you are allowed to do or say which in many parts of the world unconstitutional. If people even put an ounce of energy to complain on their governmentns that they do on companies we would live in a better world.