Alternatives web search

Yes, there is a truely trustworthy web search. It's called Yacy (http://yacy.net/en/index.html) but unfortunately the search results are not even reometly comparable with Google and other big search engines.

>I also have Disconnect.me and Ghostery installed
Ghostery is proprietary, no wonder you might have all kinds of issues...

The server sees your IP addy and can guess your location based on that.

I believe any search engine is better than g from the privacy view point.

If you want to be anonymous, there are two reliable options:

- Use a computer that is shared by many people, and where you don't identify yourself (such as one at a library).

- Use Tor (most easily, the Tor Browser Bundle).

If you're anonymous in this way, it doesn't really matter if the search engine is tracking you, because it isn't connected to you.

You can also use a free openvpn server.

do all the searches inside Tor with NoScript

or u can simply use Tor with all apps

Thanks very much Mzee, lembas, onpon4, pascal@diogoant..., aloniv and Dark Orange!
I will see the available options. I liked the ideia of Tor Browser Bundle. I found interesting yacy too. Maybe one day it will turn very good. It only depends of people i see.
So the Tails on live cd is better than using that Tor browser? or is the same? or just different?
Thanks very much to all!

Aprendiz_German go here
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+tor+works

for tail os here
https://tails.boum.org/doc/index.en.html
https://tails.boum.org/contribute/design/

tail is not day-to-day os like linux mint and Elementary OS Luna http://elementaryos.org/

but tail is freaking secure

"I did NOT select a region (which is the default setting), yet they were always throwing up ads ("sponsored links") that pinpointed my city."

That can be derived from your IP address. It doesn't mean they keep it, though there's not really any way to know, except by what they claim--no tracking.

I prefer Startpage to DuckDuckGo as the results are often better. Startpage uses Google as a backend while DDG has Bing as its main and incorporates other sources.

ssdclickofdeath same thing with me

startpage and other private search engines may be a biggest lie
unless ur using Tor browser or JohDoFox and VPN

trust no one

I wouldn't recommend hidemyass because of its bad reputation (http://invisibler.com/lulzsec-and-hidemyass/). Google will block/limit searches coming from suspicious IP addresses. A lot of IP addresses used by VPNs have been heavily abused by spammers. I recommend the followings:

(1) Always use private browsing.
(2) Use "HTTPS Everywhere" (https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere)
(3) Use VPNs but only no log VPNs (http://www.vpntips.com/hidemyass-alternatives/) or setup your own VPN
(4) If still feel paranoid, you can rent a encrypted, cloud based VPS and use it to browse the Internet.
(5) Always say "NO" when asked to use your current location.
(6) Use duckduckgo
(7) Install Ghostery and ABP
(8) Don't use Tor
(9) Only use cloud storage services that use client side encryption
(10) NEVER upload any face pictures

>(1) Always use private browsing.
>(2) Use "HTTPS Everywhere" (https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere)
>(3) Use VPNs but only no log VPNs (http://www.vpntips.com/hidemyass-alternatives/) or setup your own VPN
>(4) If still feel paranoid, you can rent a encrypted, cloud based VPS and use it to browse the Internet.
>(5) Always say "NO" when asked to use your current location.
>(6) Use duckduckgo
>(7) Install Ghostery and ABP
>(8) Don't use Tor
>(9) Only use cloud storage services that use client side encryption
>(10) NEVER upload any face pictures

1. Always use private browsing? I guess you can do this although it's important to note that "private browsing" features in most browsers simply do not store history. Since the history is stored on your own PC it's not as bad, especially if you have an encrypted file system.
2. Yes, do do that.
3. I actually use Private Internet Access for VPN. I paid for it with bitcoins as I do not have a credit card, plus it can potentially be more anonymous if don't correctly. While I don't think PIA would do this, it's still important to note that just because they say they "don't log", there is no way to verify this, so take it for what it's worth. If you are downloading torrents that aren't necessarily "approved" ;) to be downloaded, they also offer SOCKS5 proxy.

4. Cloud is a nebulous term as it can mean just about anything. If you're talking about VPS providers call them VPS providers. In regards to VPS providers, it's important to note that the software on it is the image that the provider uses, and the kernel is typically shared, like with OpenVZ servers. What this means is you are not in control of the server, so even if you can install a web browser or similar on it, the software you're running is not in your control but in the control of the VPS provider. The solution to this problem is to go dedicated and install the OS yourself that is free software, but Dedicated servers are very expensive in a lot of cases. However, I have found an alternative that seems to get the job done, sort of, and this is useful for a lot of people, not just people who want to install a web browser on a server, but many other server applications like mail servers.

Get a Raspberry Pi. Before the Raspberry Pi was not complete free software, but this has changed. Recently, Boardcom released the firmware for the Raspberry Pi so it can now run 100% free software if you compile the kernel and firmware yourself. You have to remove the non-free, contrib and packages from rpi if you use Raspbian, but you can essentially get a Debian system with complete free software. I did this, then I send my Raspberry Pi to a data center. PCExtreme will host them for around $50 a year and I now run my mail server on it. It's not on a VPS, so the data is in my control. You could also do this to setup your own private VPN that you might want to share with some people, or install remote desktop and even browse on it directly haha.
5. This is good, but there are other ways websites track you, like through Cookies and they can get a generic location with your IP, hence using a VPN is a good idea. Also, see option 7.
6. I use StartPage.
7. Do not install Ghostry. Use Tor. It is free software, unlike Ghostry. I haven't used Tor in a while, but I think it has ABP in the Tor Browser? If not it can easily be installed I guess.
8. Do not use Ghostry. DO USE TOR. Why did you even state this, why do you not like Tor. They only time Tor is not as good is if you browse to a site that does not use HTTPS.
9. Again, there is a nebulous cloud term again. See https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#CloudComputing
Personally, I do not store data on online storage services, I have an FTP server here at home that I can connect to.
10. Better yet, don't upload pictures unless you know what you're doing haha. And Do not use Facebook. Even if you do not upload pictures to Facebook, your friends can, and they can tag you, ruining your privacy in that regard. Also, some "mobile phones" have GPS Exif data in it so be careful there if you have a mobile phone. Pictures you do upload, remove Exif data from it, including serial numbers for example that some cameras include.

There's nothing wrong with uploading information publicly that you intend to share publicly, like vacation pictures only if you actually intend to share them publicly, of course. Think before you upload, don't upload anything that would infringe on privacy too bad. Plus, The big issue is when data gets shared that you didn't control when you don't know about it, like Exif data people don't know about, or when people tag you on Facebook. As such, be wary of that stuff, don't use Facebook, and you'll be good to go :)

DuckDuckGo doesn't seem to respect your privacy all that much, according to some people. It seems that Ixquick is more private and doesn't register you IP (your searches don't even sit in your History).

I agree that Ghostery ought to be avoided because it's proprietary but Disconnect, which is open source is made by a Google guy and a Doubleclick guy. Doesn't look very promising to me.

And also Disconnect doesn't show clearly what it blocks.
Some data is sent to the Disconnect server because the blacklist sits on their server not in your Firefox/Abrowser profile.
In my experience Disconnect doesn't block Gravatar for instance: that's something you can easily see for yourself. So I wonder what it actually blocks.

cheers