Startpage privacy policy gets even better.

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

Startpage Stops Recording Browser and Platform Information Entirely.

Great news! As of this week, Startpage will no longer record browser type and platform information (also known as the "user agent") of our users. This change has gone live on both Startpage and our sister search engine Ixquick (www.Ixquick.com), and translation of the text into non-English languages is underway.

The Data Collection section of our Privacy Policy has been revised to reflect this change. Our privacy policy now reads as follows:

Data Collection

• We don't collect any personal information on our visitors. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
• When you use Startpage, we do not record your IP address, we do not record which browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, etc.), we do not record your computer platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.), and we do not record your search words or phrases. In fact, the only information we do record is an aggregate total of how many searches are performed on our website each day (a measure of overall traffic), and those overall traffic numbers broken down by language.
• Our zero data collection policy protects your privacy, since your IP address, browser, and platform information can be combined with other data to uniquely identify your computer, your location, or you. It is also important not to record search terms, since they can convey personal information as well. (Think of someone entering their own name and/or social security number.)

We're always looking for more ways to protect your privacy, and now we've gotten our data collection down to literally nothing. We are delighted with this new arrangement, and believe our users will be too!