title: Startpage is NOT a privacy search engine
author: 寮
date: 2022-04-02 00:55:11
tags:technology,privacy
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Question: if Startpage claims to be a privacy search engine, then why the fuck:
1. does it load Goolag tracking?\
![](http://ass.ryocafe.site/6cc9bb9ccd6db661cf43dad91692ea8c2a6d3bcda792770ce7aa7839f82a85d5.png)
2. does it include multiple ad and adblock related JS scripts?\
![](http://ass.ryocafe.site/29459b05c9ba446cff17ba8e630093b3dd6afc894a02229e56fdb8daa74dd38e.png)

The good thing about Startpage compared to CuckCuckGo is that it actually has a functioning website if you disable JavaScript.\
CuckCuckGo redirects you to a less than useless HTML version that's always using the eye blindening white theme, is search results only (no image search, no "news" search (not like anyone even cares anyway), no video search, just nothing!) and actively prevents you from accessing these parts too, and search results on CuckCuckGo's HTML version are even more useless than the JS version.

There's literally no reason for CuckCuckGo to not allow you to view images and videos if you disable JS, it's as if they're just punishing you for caring about privacy and security.\
StartPage on the other hand doesn't let you click on images when JS is disabled which too is pretty dumb, but at least it lets you search for those.

But both seem to be bending the knee with their censorship of Russian sites, so they're both not worth your time when it comes to neutrality.\
I'm not saying I trust Russian propaganda, they're just as bad as western propaganda, and both sides are spewing bullshit all the time, but the point is that being biased is NOT supposed to be the job of a search engine.
