How many of you use the private browsing – incognito – mode of your browser? Oh, you do.
Why? Is it because it prevents Google from tracking your searches? It doesn’t matter which search engine – Google, Yahoo or Bing – you use; your Private Internet browser can’t hide your activity.
As you know, none of those is an anonymous search engine, and Incognito mode doesn’t help a lot.
The only thing private browsing mode does is not adding anything to your browser’s history. It clears the cookies each time you close the browser and does not store information about the session on your device.
But it doesn’t make you private from the outer world. Search engines can still monitor you, store your information and… it’s nothing secret.
Why a VPN Makes Any Search Engine More Private
Even with a fully private engine, three people can still see your searches: your internet provider (Telstra, Optus, TPG and the rest, who are legally required to keep metadata in Australia under our metadata retention rules), anyone on the same Wi-Fi network, and, on public or campus Wi-Fi, whoever runs it. A VPN fixes the weak link: it encrypts the whole connection, so your ISP and the network see only that you connected to a VPN server, never which search engine you used or what you typed. That is why privacy guides pair a private engine with a VPN rather than relying on the engine alone.
Our recommendation for private searching: NordVPN
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
NordVPN is our best VPN for Australia overall: no activity logs (its no-log claims have been independently audited by Deloitte), 7,600+ servers in 118 countries, and apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and routers.
5 Search Engines that don’t track your activity
Here is how the main private options compare in 2026:
| Engine | Index | Tracking stance | Notable 2026 point |
| DuckDuckGo | Bing-based mix | No storage of personal search history | Biggest reach; AI answers added across the results. |
| Brave Search | Independent index | No IP/query logs by default | Its own crawler, so results do not just mirror Bing or Google. |
| Startpage | Google results | Proxy layer, no data passed to third parties | Google-quality results without the Google account. |
| Mojeek | Independent (UK) | No tracking, no profiling | The “underdog” choice with its own spider. |
| SearXNG | Metasearch of many engines | Depends on the instance you run | Self-hosted option: you control the server. |
Private AI search in 2026: the AI assistants built into the big engines log and learn from your queries, which changes the privacy calculation. If you want the AI convenience with fewer traces, pair a private engine with your own VPN rather than signing into an AI-search product, and be aware that in Australia your ISP can still see which engine you visit, even if the engine itself does not track you (our metadata retention explainer covers what ISPs actually keep). For device-level protection see our smartphone encryption guide, and if you keep hitting a VPN toggle rather than a search engine, here is how to turn a VPN off in Chrome.
1. DuckDuckGo
When it comes to private searching, DuckDuckGo is the leader. Is DuckDuckGo safe? Yes, it does not store your search results or profile you on by tracking your activity.
It’s the best search engine for privacy; the search results, though, would be general and not curated for you.
Search engines have to keep track of your searches to show results you are interested in – a phenomenon known as a filter bubble. Although it sources its results from Yahoo, DDG keeps you out of the bubble.
A somewhat unique function of DuckDuckGo is “!bangs”. Say you want to search for trimmers in the eBay Australia store. What you have to do is to put “!eBay trimmer” as search, and it directly opens up the eBay search results.
2. StartPage
StartPage gets you browsing through a proxy server. You still get the Google search results, but this no tracking search engine eliminates the risk of websites getting your IP address and location. A StartPage proxy server powers your visit to the search results when you click on them.
Many articles about StartPage review say that the proxy feature slows it down, but it’s a great thing for your privacy.
3. Disconnect
Disconnect is another completely unfiltered search engine, but it’s different from others because it does not have its page for searches. Disconnect works through its browser add-on, providing content from your preferred search engine.
You choose the search engine, and when you initiate a search, your personal search engine results page opens (minus the tracking).
Your search requests are directed to Disconnect’s server, hiding your identity in the process. You can, though, do location-specific searches there.
4. Privatelee
Privatelee is a secure search engine that doesn’t store your keywords. It compiles its results from different search engines to show you the best among them. It also has filters to show you only reliable pages in the results.
Then, this PowerSearch Commands feature can let you search within other websites, something that DuckDuckGo also has. And you also can preview pages before visiting.
5. Yippy
Yippy organises the search results by tags. It sources content from different engines and provides a quality list of
results. And on the sidebar are the related categories to help you narrow down the results. (Read Putlockers TV Show)
So, instead of a long list of “PC Games” pages, you can check the categorised results for download, reviews, or tutorials. It doesn’t show you any ads and, of course, never records you. Like Privatelee, Yippy also offers a preview of the results.
Each search engine has a different approach to finding out what you want them to, but they have one thing in common.
And that is, giving you a private and secure mode for searching. And if you want to get an extra layer of privacy, why don’t you use a VPN? (What is a VPN?)
Would you like to know about it?
VPN and privacy
VPNs have long been the privacy toolkit’s backbone, and the reason is simple: when you connect to a VPN server, your real IP address is masked, your traffic is encrypted, and the server, not your home address, is what websites and search engines see.
For private searching specifically, our recommendation is NordVPN: it keeps no activity logs (audited by Deloitte), holds its 7,600+ server network across 118 countries, and its kill switch drops the connection if the VPN ever fails, so a private search never leaks onto the raw internet by accident. See the full ranking for how it compares with Surfshark, ExpressVPN and the rest.
Combining a private search engine with a VPN is the reliable way to keep both the engine and your ISP out of your browsing, which is exactly what this guide is about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does incognito mode make my searches anonymous?
No. Private browsing only stops the browser from saving history locally; search engines still record and profile your searches, which is why a private search engine is needed.
What are the best search engines that don’t track you?
The guide’s list is DuckDuckGo, StartPage, Disconnect, Privatelee and Yippy, each with a different approach from proxied Google results to tag-based organisation.
What is DuckDuckGo’s !bang feature?
DuckDuckGo supports “!bangs”: typing a shortcut such as the eBay bang searches that site directly, one of the features the guide highlights for private searchers.
