Privacy Search Engines Ranked

┌── Tier -1: Anonymous Search on Anonymous Network
│   │
│   └── Ahmia (Tor network search, academic, no IP storage)
│       Searches anonymized (.onion) network only
│
├── Tier 0: Maximum Privacy (Clearnet)
│   │
│   └── Marginalia Search (24h logs, no tracking, anti-commercial)
│       Specialized index, not for general web search
│
├── Tier 1: Total Independence & Control
│   │
│   ├── SearxNG, Self-hosted (you control everything, meta-search)
│   │
│   └── Mojeek (100% own index, no partnerships)
│       Most private general search engine
│
├── Tier 2: Strong Independent Commercial
│   │
│   └── Brave Search (own index, transparent Google fallback)
│       Best privacy/practicality balance for daily use
│
├── Tier 2.5: European Independent
│   │
│   ├── Qwant (EU-based, own index, GDPR-focused)
│   │
│   └── Murena Find (Qwant Proxy)
│
├── Tier 4: Privacy Proxies (dependency on surveillance providers)
│   │
│   ├── Startpage (Google proxy, no tracking)
│   │
│   └── DuckDuckGo (Bing + own index, no tracking)
│
├── Tier 5: Privacy-Wrapped Ad Partners
│   │
│   ├── Swisscows (Microsoft Bing ads, Swiss wrapper)
│   │   Obfuscated IP to Microsoft, 60-day logs,
│   │   jurisdictional/technical obscurantism
│   │
│   └── Ecosia (Google + Microsoft ads, EU wrapper)
│       Full IP & query to partners, 7-day retention,
│       emotional appeals feel like misdirection
│
└── Tier null: Commercial & State Surveillance
    │
    ├── Google (Most comprehensive tracking ecosystem)
    │
    ├── Bing (Same model as Google, slightly less effective)
    │
    ├── Yandex (Russian jurisdiction, SORM compliance)
    │
    └── Yahoo (Bing-powered + Verizon tracking)


If there's a revenue model dependency (Bing, Google or other
surveillance ecosystem), follow the money to understand the
privacy compromises.

Recommendations: Tier -1 to Tier 2.5 are clear leaders.
                 Tier 4 are (maybe) acceptable compromises

Ranking is based on an analysis of their privacy policies and
partners. This is a first draft.

Startpage, for example, is owned by an ad company and may dip in
the rankings as I take a closer look at it and all the others.

Initial upload: 04 Dec 2025