[TekMol]

"Privacy by default"

I don't know. To me, requiring me to give them my email and then having all my searches associated with that email is the opposite of privacy to me.

Yes, Google, Bing, Perplexity and Co could do fingerprinting and try fuzzy matching to cluster my searches. But at least that would be fuzzy and against the law in many places. While with Kagi, every search of mine would be clearly labeled as coming from me.

[dharmab]

There is a feature where you can search anonymously, using IETF's Privacy Pass standard: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/privacy/privacy-pass.html

[TekMol]

That looks super complicated. And hard to tell if the cryptography works as intended.

Why would I go through all that hassle if I can just type my query directly in other search engines?

[mjamesaustin]

Because the other search engines offer no privacy and relentlessly track everything you do across the internet?

[TekMol]

How do you know they do that? And how do you know Kagi does not?

Whatever the engines secretly do, why would I use one where on top of that I have to actively tag every one of my searches with my email?

[eitland]

> How do you know they do that?

Because it has been widely discussed for years.

> And how do you know Kagi does not?

Because the source code of that feature is open and you can look into it I guess

[TekMol]

> Because it has been widely discussed for years.

That Google does fingerprinting across searches to cluster them and pinpoint them to a person? Are you sure you are not confusing this with cookies? Cookies are under my control. I can decide to not store them or just delete them.

> Because the source code of that feature is open and you can look into it I guess

You can't know what source code that is running on the server which you send your queries to.

[ipaddr]

Duckduckgo and yandex are search engines.

[dharmab]

I mean, it's pretty easy to use. It's a toggle switch in the UI.

[TekMol]

If it is a switch in the UI, then that is just trusting the site.

If you trust companies with what they say they do, then why not enter your query in any search engine that does not require a login? Afaik none of them say that they will try to apply fuzzy fingerprinting to cluster your searches into a profile.

[hobofan]

Honest question: Is private search achievable with your worldview?

[Wilder7977]

Don't give them "your" email. Give them a mail alias, which I am sure as a privacy conscious person you already have, and you are good. They also recommend to do so themselves.

However, the most important argument here is not the fact that they are legally bound to those privacy commitments (they are), but that their business incentives are fundamentally incompatible with tracking users. For a very niche business with an extremely narrow and homogeneous user base, if they would get caught doing so, it would be game over. The privacy pass feature is available if you don't trust, and you can verify since everything relevant happens client side.

[fancy_pantser]

Maybe their privacy pass is useful then?

https://help.kagi.com/kagi/privacy/privacy-pass.html

[mrtesthah]

Unfortunately the assistant officially does not work with Privacy Pass, for some inexplicable reason.

[flexagoon]

How is requiring an email "the opposite of privacy" when making a one-time disposable email takes like 5 seconds?