Searching The Web Is No Longer Anonymous Or Is It?

In a devastating report, the Washington Post, in June of this year, says that a secret government program, code-named PRISM, has been spying on millions of American's by tapping into 9 US Internet companies. Here's what you need to know.

According to the Washington Post, who managed to obtain private documents, the NSA and FBI have been tapping into the internal servers of 9 major US Internet companies. The aforementioned government agencies have been receiving audio, video, photos, emails, documents, and connection logs that essentially lets the NSA and FBI track an individual's location and contacts over a period of time.

This is the first time PRISM has been announced publicly. It was officially established in 2007, and experienced "exponential growth" in the following six years, even though both the Obama and Bush administrations have been criticized heavily for invading on the civil liberties on the American people. It was so secret, in fact, that the members of Congress that knew about the program couldn't speak about it at all, even though there was multiple debates on the ever-graying line between government surveillance and the privacy of Americans.

PRISM's disclosure comes soon after reports of another controversial surveillance order. Reports have surged that the National Security Agency has been coercing Verizon into handing information of all phone calls from Verizon's 116 million customers since 2006. The President has justified the act saying that it is in an important tool int he war against terrorism

Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple have been involved in the program for years. Dropbox isn't an official member yet, but they're rumored to be joining soon. As you can see from the chart above from, the first member to join was Microsoft, on 9/11/2007. Yahoo soon follow, joining in February 2008. Google, Facebook, and PalTalk all joined in 2009, while Youtube was the only company joining PRISM in 2010. Skype and AOL joined in 2011, and Apple joined finally in 2012. According to the Washington Post, Apple resisted joining the program for more than five years until they joined in 2012. Twitter, interestingly, isn't listed as a member. The Washington Post notes that Twitter values user data tremendously, which may be a reason the company isn't listed as a member.

Here's what a Google spokesperson said about the allegations regarding PRISM:

"Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a 'back door' for the government to access private user data."

So, with fears of sharing too much information with the search engines or the government about your searches, where can you go for a more private search experience than Google or Bing offer by default? That’s a good question, but there are anonymous alternatives to the big guys that do not track you through cookies or your IP address:

1. Duck Duck Go

2. Gibiru

3. IxQuick

4. Look Seek

5. Lukol

6. Start Page

7. Mother Pipe (UK)

I suggest you try them all and find the one you feel is the most comfortable to use. I have tested them all and found that each takes your search query, removes all identifiable information about the searcher, and submits the search anonymously. Your IP address is never recorded, your visit is not logged, and no tracking cookies are placed on your browser.

I would also like to thank my buddy John Clifton for initiating this search for anonymous search engines. Up until now, I had been using anonymous proxies and using an anonymous search engine is so much easier letting someone else worry about security.