Somebody looking up your name on a search engine like Google might find results related to your previous jobs and addresses, along with information about your relatives. This data could be used against you, for example in determining the answers to security questions. Fortunately, Google does offer a remove outdated content tool for requesting takedowns […]

Doing a quick Google or Bing search of yourself can help you find out which of your personal information is publicly available. You may also be able to find out if any unauthorized people are using your name. By using operators, you can adjust your search to find out this information. Add an @ sign […]

Like most other private search engines, Ecosia does not sell your search data to third parties, nor does it use trackers to monitor the sites that you visit. An added benefit of using Ecosia is that they operate with a “green computing” angle. They use the income that they generate from search ads to plant […]

Privacy-minded users may already be aware of services and browsers like DuckDuckGo. Now, this search engine offers private route planning. To use this feature, enter a location in the search bar. Click on the resulting map and select “Directions.” Route options will be displayed based on your anonymized current location.

Sometimes when you search for something and then try to visit a website in the results, you’ll see a warning saying the site’s certificate has expired. Instead of going through anyway (which is risky), consider using the cache – on Google, it’s usually to the right of the result, in a drop-down menu. The cache […]

Sometimes when you visit specific sites, you’ll see a warning from your web browser that the site isn’t safe or that its security certificate has expired. Google will sometimes include a textual warning on risky search results, too. These notices should be heeded. Stay away from potentially compromised sites to keep your data safe.