This came out awhile back about Google Ads. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57606178-83/nsa-tracks-google-ads-to-find-tor-users/
startpage.com and ixquick.com do seem to mean well so I don't intend to malign them. Another rule of thumb is to only trust a source that runs https by default.
On 01-Oct-12 15:34, knowknot at mindspring.com wrote:
> On 9/30/2012, Eleutherios replied:
>
>> Google Ads (and analytics), for starters.*
>>
>> ---------------------------------------
>> * knowknot at mindspring.com wrote:
>>
>>>> * * * [Trying to achieve some degree of anonymity]
>>> > I mostly use https://duckduckgo.com/ * * *
>>>
>>>
>>> Look at
>>> http://www.startpage.com or https://startpage.com
>>> or/and
>>> http://ixquick.com or https://ixquick.com
>
> For starters, apart from my long time preference to remain in lurker and
> so not poster mode, I hesitate to respond -- all the more so here, since
> this is basically a chacun à son goût kind of Thing and, in addition, I
> don't want to appear to be making any kind of pitch for [This] or [That]
> enterprise. HOWEVER:
>
> While Google almost certainly collects and does data analysis of search
> queries processed internally through its servers even when received from
> "anonymized" proxies, one who believes the ixquick.com and startpage.com
> representations ought conclude, probably correctly, that Google
> Analytics, as such, is essentially disabled for searches done via those
> web sites because, among their other privacy maintenance attempts, they
> by default encrypt search queries transmitted from their proxy sites, do
> not collect or transmit via their encrypted queries the user's IP
> address, do not record or transmit from what operating system the user
> makes a query, do not record or transmit what browser or other query
> enabling software is used, do not record the search terms or results of
> the search, incidentally also do not display paid/advertising responses
> to a search query that Google would display for an identical search via
> that source, and (as far as I and colleagues have been able to
> determine) the Google Analytics js detritus stored on a user's
> computer when GA is used does not appear when either/both these search
> facilities are used. But, as I say, chacun à son goût . . . .