Everything is built on data. The largest companies in the world have created interesting, popular and useful products that rely on data they’ve collected over time. Huge user bases are the exact things making these companies so powerful and successful. The reason is: Huge user bases mean huge amounts of data.
The Products You Use The Most Rely on Data
Think about the devices you use most often: your smartphone, your computer, your smart home devices. All of these are means for companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook to collect your information. Recently Google came under fire for tracking Android users’ locations even if they had disabled the “Location History” setting.
In 2017, Google’s revenue from ads was $95.375 billion. The reason Google can make so much money from advertising is because it uses all of its services to learn so much about the people it’s advertising to. Ads can be targeted very, very specifically — and unfortunately in some cases Google has been collecting user data without their knowledge.
Growing Interest In Privacy Products
As data collection grows more intrusive, consumers are growing more cautious.
VPNs: Virtual private networks, or VPNs, are great tools for protecting your privacy on the internet. They direct your internet connection through different networks in different locations to anonymize your internet activity.
Ad-Blockers: You can use ad-blockers to improve your internet browsing experiences. These will block ads from loading on the sites you visit. Because you won’t have to wait for ads to load, you can actually speed up your browsing.
Private Messaging/Email: There are private alternatives to most services you use on the internet. Most use some type of encryption to protect your data from snooping eyes or internet trackers. Private messaging apps encrypt your messages to keep third parties from snooping on your conversations.
Private Search Engines: Search Encrypt, and other private search engines, have different business models than traditional search engines. Another reason private search engines are better than their mainstream counterparts, is because of less bias in search results. Without data about your past search results, private search engines can’t change your search results based on what you’re most likely to click on.
Unfortunately since large corporations have seen the massive value that data provides, they have scrambled to collect as much as possible.
Many businesses have adopted a model of “collect as much data as possible, even if we don’t know how we’re going to use it yet.” Too many business are opting to target their offers, even if doing so isn’t necessary. Having data about how customers interact with a business is very valuable, but isn’t necessarily good for consumers. If more companies use tracking on a larger scale, it creates a culture that is accepting of tracking and data collection.
This data allows companies to hyper-optimize their product offerings and services. However, it also leaves consumers vulnerable. If every website or business you interact with is sucking up your data, you have to trust hundreds or thousands of third-parties to store and protect your data responsibly.
Using Data Adds Conveinence, but There’s A Catch
Tracking and data collection can offer great value and convenience to users. However, it becomes a problem when every interaction involves sharing your data. In this case, it’s nearly impossible to control who collects and uses your information.
Checking your email, or reading a news article online shouldn’t be an invitation for the sites you visit to track you data. There is an understanding on the internet that if a service is free, you exchange your data for using the product. Some people would be willing to pay for the services if it meant they didn’t have to share their data with the website or service they’re using.
Facebook, for example, made an average of $26.76 per user in the US and Canada last year. This revenue is almost entirely from targeted ads on its platform. If users were to pay for the service, the cost would have to offset the lost ad revenue.
Search Encrypt Is Packaging Privacy In a User-Friendly Way
In the past, privacy-based products had the reputation that they couldn’t be user-friendly or convenient. Fortunately, Search Encrypt has continuously improved its private search engine to be as user-friendly and convenient as possible.
If privacy products aren’t simple and easy to use, it’s very difficult to convince users to switch. However, if Search Encrypt looks and feels modern, people are much more likely to stick around. Privacy products have gotten bad reputations in the past because their user interfaces just weren’t comparable to the products most people used everyday. Well, that has drastically shifted and now privacy products are on par with the other products on the internet.
No matter which search engines you’ve used in the past, Search Encrypt offers the same general functionality. Just enter your search term and hit enter. We encrypt your search terms and return your secure search results to protect your privacy.
Search Encrypt is always growing more feature-rich. This year we’ve made numerous changes to improve your search results and user-experience. You can now use Search Encrypt to search images, videos, news and maps — all with added privacy protection. No matter what you’re looking for, we use encryption to keep your searches private.
Only you need to know what you search for, so why let your search engine or any other third parties in on your searches?
