PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Jan. 7, 2021 - Mainstream search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are great at finding the answers to our queries at speed. They're also major data collection systems, tracking the searches your IP address makes.
Increasingly, people are getting fed up with the prying eyes of internet search engines. Location tracking and the building of detailed user profiles are just a few of the issues that come with traditional search engines.
If you'd rather retain a feeling of privacy when you're browsing the web, the good news is that there is a search engine now on the market that is focused on private, secure and academic browsing.
Lynn Bentley, the Company's President announce, "Knobull, is an Academic Search Engine, that is completely secure because it still uses Google search results but does so without allowing Google to log any of your user data. No information is shared with third parties, and advanced filtering options mean you can hunt for 5 billion academic documents as well as text-based content without receiving commercial clutter!
Many are taught not to touch stuff that doesn't belong to us. It's an excellent motto. So why are online companies harvesting our personal data without our consent? They shouldn't. That's why we're developing online tools that help you stay in control of your personal information. Academic Search is fully functional and supported by a private Learning Center. Why? We believe that personal data is your data not Big Data! Enough is enough!"
Laudable features of Knobull include the use of a proxy server that masks your IP address and location, a URL generator that removes the need for tracking cookies and HTTPS support that means you won't be served results from websites with poor security.
Bentley continued, "Because we use Refseek as our academic search service, there are still adverts on the top of search results, but they are not based on your personal information or search history. Unlike Google, adverts are also very clearly highlighted and separated from other search listings on Knobull. Some reviewers have ranked their effectiveness higher than Google."
When it comes to protecting your privacy on the internet, switching search engines is just one part of the fight. A private academic search engine can't stop the sites you visit from knowing that you've spent time there.
Two popular tools in the battle for internet privacy are VPN apps and Torbrowser. Both are designed to serve a number of functions, including heavily encrypting anything you send and receive online, concealing your IP address and location from any site you visit, and helping you to avoid digital censorship.
Bentley concluded, "In either case, you can visit websites safe in the knowledge that you're doing so without leaving a traceable footprint, meaning no spammy targeted ads and no data collection."
