End of... StartPage Search Engine

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Barbara
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End of... StartPage Search Engine

Post by Barbara »

I made an unpleasant discovery recently at the computer repair store. I have religiously used StartPage ever since I heard of it years ago. I was using it as my home page to avoid the UGLY sight of 'guggl' with their dark, soulless pictures that look like they were drawn by a wayward child.

Well, I hate to admit, I was put to Google by the repair tech. He explained that my computer was slow because of the LAST THING I would have dreamed of causing malicious trouble : StartPage ! I was aghast to learn that StartPage has all sorts of marketing cookies and perhaps other intrusive things that they slap onto your computer when you use them for searching. There is so much garbage that accumulates that one eventually gets error messages, which is close to what happened to me. It was frustrating, as the computer would stall and take forever to do searches sometimes. NOW we know WHY !

A previous tech had - without asking me for my preference - set the home page to MSN.com. I nearly shrieked when I saw the horrific headlines -- and could not get that page to disappear. It obstinately kept returning and flaunting all sorts of evil 'news' and photos so that I could not avoid them. Thus the second trip to a more professional operation which selected Google for me. Compared with the blaring headlines of MSN, Google NOW seemed pacific. I still hate those insane doodlings that the company foists on its users to poison our eyes !

So, other search engines do the same, this tech insisted. He said that they advertise themselves as "private" when in fact they are more aggressive than the regulars ! I only remembered after I had left to ask about DuckDuckGo, since Maria often mentions this search engine, thought comparable to StartPage. However, I suspect it is absolutely the same : collecting full data on you, the user, and clogging your computer in the process. But pretending quite the opposite !

A warning to anyone else. Apparently this trick was uncovered about a year ago. StartPage customers were directed by local techs to switch to one of the main large search engines. These are able to pay for themselves without all the unpleasant advertising and extensive use of cookies.

I waited awhile to post this, since I hoped to find some corroboration or amplification on the internet. But there too many entries under "StartPage Fraud" or similar searches that I could not look at all of them. It seems there is no mention of this problem.

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Barbara
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Re: End of... StartPage Search Engine

Post by Barbara »

DuckDuckGo is NO BETTER ~

"We recommend that you don't use DuckDuckGo if you seek a search engine that values your privacy...
Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of DuckDuckGo, used to run the Names Database. This was a website that aimed to connect people who had lost contact by gathering lots and lots of e-mail addresses. Getting access could be done by either paying money, or submitting lots of e-mail addresses of other people. Since the service revolved around gathering personal information, it is very suspicious for Gabriel Weinberg to start a business that is privacy-oriented.

DuckDuckGo used to set a tracking cookie, even though they claimed they didn't...."

Frankly, I never once looked at that search engine : the name was pathetic.
Now if it had been Duke as in Grand Duke or Archduke, I might have taken a glance. Anyone who would name their aspiring company such a nursery-school name doesn't deserve my patronage.

Here we see the beginnings of proof that this search engine, too, is a scam.

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Maria
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Re: End of... StartPage Search Engine

Post by Maria »

Barbara,

Reddit is a forum, so what you posted is just one person's suspicions. Suspicions and speculations are not proof.

Did you see that he recommended Start Page as an alternative to DuckDuckGo.com? This is ridiculous. You posted one opinion, which was negative toward Start Page, then another which praises them.

Please be careful in your searches.

Regularly clearing cookies is a great idea, and Facebook is one of the worst violators.

Everytime I have logged into Facebook, they have installed a complete package loaded with cookies that takes over and slows down my computer almost immediately. There is always a pregnant pause between logging in and visiting my page.

Logging into Facebook is just as bad as a virus. After I have visited FB, I get a black screen and then my mouse no longer works. I have to reboot, then clear the cookies, and reboot again. I have not visited FB in over a month, and my computer is working much better now.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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