Major search engines have said they need to retain personal data, in part, to provide better services, to thwart security threats, to keep people from gaming search ranking results, and to combat click fraud scammers. However, major search engines often have retained this data for over a year, seemingly well beyond the time frame necessary to address these concerns. Some search engines have reduced the time that they retain users' IP addresses. Major search engines delete or anonymize IP addresses according to the following schedule:

• Yahoo-18 months
• Bing (formerly MSN/Windows Live)-6 months
• Google-9 months

Startpage (www.startpage.com), a search engine operated by Ixquick, based in The Netherlands, does not record users’ IP addresses at all.  The privacy policy was created partially in response to fears that if the company retained the information, it would eventually be misused. The company concluded, “If the data is not stored, users privacy can't be breached.”  Startpage will remove all identifying information from your query and submit it anonymously to Google. Startpage uses advanced encryption technology for your search queries.

DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/) is another search engine that, according to its Privacy Policy "does not collect or share personal information".  Their full Privacy Policy is at https://duckduckgo.com/privacy.

Online Privacy Tip:  It's a good idea to avoid using the same website for both your web-based email and as your search engine.  Web email accounts will always require some type of a login, so if you use the same site as your search engine, your searches can be connected to your email account.  By using different websites for different needs -- perhaps Yahoo for your email and Google for your searches -- you can help limit the total amount of information retained by any one site.  Alternatively, log out of your email and clear your browser's cookies (see Cookies below) before going to other sites, so that your searches and browsing are not connected to your email address.  Another method for preventing a search engine from associating your searches and web browsing with your web mail account is to use a different browser for your email account than for your searches and web browsing.

Online Privacy Tip:  Avoid downloading search engine toolbars (for example, the Google toolbar or Yahoo toolbar). Toolbars may permit the collection of information about your web surfing habits.  Watch out that you do not inadvertently download a toolbar when downloading software, particularly free software.

Online Privacy Tip:  Google combines information about you from most of its services, including its search engine, Gmail, and YouTube.  Be sure to disable automatic sign-ins by following the instructions at http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=39273.  Also be sure to clear your browser's cache and cookies by following the instructions athttps://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?hl=en.  While you must be signed in to access Gmail, most Google services can be used without being signed in to your account.

People are lack of privacy on the internet nowadays. Edward Joseph Snowden told us it's time to be arlet and take action now to protect ourselves from network surveilance and traffic analysis.

• Web-based proxies: The most common and easiest to use proxy. These are servers that you connect to through a browser to visit a website anonymously.
• Open proxies: These are proxy servers that are either accidentally left open or are hacked. They are often not secure and can contain malicious software. It is recommended that you avoid open proxies.
• Anonymity networks: These are private networks that are run by users donating bandwidth. They are often incredibly slow and due to the fact that anyone can host bandwidth, they are fairly insecure.
• Paid proxy softwares, such as IP Hider Ever, is often used to hide your IP address so that you can hide your internet traffic and the real location while surfing the web. Softwares like IP Hider Ever makes nobody know what you do on the internet. So you can surf wherever you want on the web without worrying about any of the information leaked. But the question is still that whether you trust the software company.
• VPN (Virtual Private Network): These are private networks where you directly connect to a proxy server maintained by a proxy company or organization.
• Proxy Chain. Currently, the most untraceable VPNs use TOR, where all the network traffic is redirected to use TOR. This redirection can be done simply with the built-in system package iptables of Linux. If you do not want to setup the proxy chain yourself or using windows as your OS, softwares like iProxyEver can do all the job for you.