Startpage, the world’s most private search engine, is helping educate students on data privacy and protection with our Private Search 101 university lesson plan. Are you a student or professor interested in learning more about how to protect your privacy online? Learn more with our accessible, informative Private Search 101 university lesson plan.

1. Private Search 101

2. Why should we care?
Historical injustices regarding data collection
• The Holocaust (and the Holocaust in the Netherlands)
• Rwandan genocide
• Japanese-American internment
Today’s world
• Internet regulations
• American immigrants
• NSA blackmail
• High school laptops
• Doe vs Netflix
• Hong Kong protests
• AOL search logs release

3. Historical injustices regarding data collection
•Nazis and Holocaust impact in the Netherlands
• 140,000 Jews lived in Netherlands before Holocaust, 105,000
Jews killed during
• 3 years before the Holocaust, there was a census //
“comprehensive population registration system for administrative
and statistical purposes”
• 73% of Jewish population killed in NL, vs 25% in France, 40% in
Belgium
•Rwandan Genocide
• People had to carry ID cards with their “ethnic group” on it
• Hundreds of thousands systematically killed as a result
•Japanese-American Internment
• U.S. Census Bureau provided the U.S. Secret Service with names
and addresses of Japanese-Americans during World War II
• 120,000 total people interned

4. Data collection today
• 2017 - Trump signed a bill blocking the implementation of rules requiring internet providers to ask
permission before selling sensitive customer data (like web-browsing histories) to advertisers.
• 2009 - School district near Philadelphia lent high schoolers laptops for schoolwork. Installed spyware,
surreptitiously photographed (even at home). Principal confronted a student with pictures of him allegedly
popping pills - turns out they were Mike n Ike’s candy.
• 2006 - Netflix released a dataset of movie ratings with a unique ID associated. People were able to to
compare these reviews against IMDB public reviews - turns out they were able to identify political leanings
and sexual orientation, outing a closeted gay woman.
• 2006 - AOL search log release to the entire world, for research purposes. Through clues revealed in the
search queries, The New York Times successfully uncovered the identities of several searchers.
Do you think these instances are
cause for concern? Why or why not?

5. The engines behind search
Who are the biggest search engines by
volume of search?
• Google
• Bing
• Yandex
• Baidu
Do you have a preferred
search engine? Why?

6. You are what you search for?

7. What personal data does your
search engine collect?
Name
Email
Email
Contacts
Phone
Number
Phone
Carrier
Purchase
History
Billing
Information
IP
address
GPS
location
Device
Type
Browser
Type
Your
Apps
Your
Photos
Your
Content
Activity
on other
websites

8. How is your personal search
data used?

9. Target you with ads
and content
Retargeting ads that follow you
around the Internet. These
“behavioral ads” are ads based on
your personal data (search history,
location, cookies, etc.). This means
that just because you searched for
the term “help constipation” once,
you will be targeted with ads and
content accordingly in the future.

10. Place price trackers
on you
Companies use dynamic pricing to gather data
and change prices accordingly. You could be
presented with higher prices or fewer discounts
based on your location, device type and
browsing/ purchase history.
• For example - If you have an interest in luxury
goods, own a home, and work in the tech
industry, then your non-private search engine
will help companies target you with ads for
higher-income individuals based on this
personal data alone.

11. Serve you
manipulative content
Targeted content to influence
your opinion.

12. Deliver you profiled
search results
Profiled search results keeping you in a filter-
bubble - i.e. personalized news based on
media sites you frequent and themes you
search for.
• Politicians are just ONE of the groups that can
access your valuable personal data, using it to
target you with political ads during their campaigns.
These voting influencers can “personalize” the
content you see in your search results and your
digital feed as a result. Before you know it, your
entire online experience is pre-determined by Big
Tech’s profile on you, leading you down a path
decided by your non-private search engine. Eight
months later, you’re voting for a candidate who has
dominated your digital feed, as a result of
consistently planted content to sway you in a
particular direction.

13. Save and sell your
digital profile
Big Tech presents you with search
results and news based on your
browsing history, location, level of
education, sexual orientation,
political preferences, propensity to
spend, etc. (this information
becomes your digital profile)

14. A state of surveillance
A stored digital record of your
searches that can be obtained law
enforcement and government.
A few ways the government keeps
tabs on you:
• Facial recognition systems
• Search and browsing history
• Stingrays - law enforcement can track
your phone and intercept
communications with stingrays, they can
be hidden in vehicles and attached to
planes

15. What could be in your
digital profile?

16. Your digital profile exists even when you clear your
search history or “go incognito”
Health
Symptoms
Financial
needs
Travel
Destinations
Level of
Education Sexual
Orientation
Political
Preference
Propensity
to Spend
Mental
State
News
Awareness

17. Researching about your health, finances and
politics can lead to targeting and online profiling
Ad targeting per your health statushttps://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/retail-and-e-commerce-9315
Credit scoring based on your
digital fingerprint
https://danielmiessler.com/blog/new-study-shows-you-can-predict-credit-rating-from-your-online-tech-fingerprint/
Higher prices based on browser history
https://millionmilesecrets.com/guides/are-airlines-raising-your-ticket-price-based-on-browser-history/
https://techscience.org/a/2015090101/
SEME influences govt electionsThe search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections
Robert Epstein1 and Ronald E. Robertson

18. How Startpage
Created The First Ever
Private Search Engine

20. How Startpage Private Search Works
Enter your
search query
We remove
all PII from
your search
term
We send your
search term only
to Google who
processes your
search
We deliver you
unprofiled search
results
You are protected
by European and
Dutch privacy
legislation.
1 2 3 4 5

21. Search In True Privacy
The search encryption protocols prevent almost everyone, including
your internet service provider, the NSA, or even a random hacker
from taking a peek at your search.
The search encryption protocols:
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
• Transport Layer Security (TLS)
• Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS)
How Startpage Private Search Works
1

22. Search In True Privacy - detailed
The search encryption protocols:
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) - the standard security technology for establishing
an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that
all data passed between the web server and browser remain private.
• Transport Layer Security (TLS) - provides privacy and data integrity between
two or more communicating computer applications.
• Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) - gives assurances that session keys will not be
compromised even if the private key of the server is compromised. Forward
secrecy protects past sessions against future compromises of secret keys or
passwords. By generating a unique session key for every session a user
initiates, the compromise of a single session key will not affect any data other
than that exchanged in the specific session protected by that particular key.
How Startpage Private Search Works
1

23. Anonymizing Your Search
Your search query is not only secure, but also anonymized.
The search query runs through our “premise servers” located in
Europe that are owned and managed by Startpage where:
1. Servers are located in locked cabinets
2. Data personnel can’t log in
3. Only non-US Startpage administrators manage the servers to
prevent any potential gag orders.
Imagine everything the internet knows about - your search history,
social media data, IRL location… Now imagine all of that bing
stripped away.
How Startpage Private Search Works
2

24. Anonymizing Your Search - detailed
• On-premises is the software and technology that is located within the
physical confines of an enterprise – often in the company's data center
– as opposed to running remotely on hosted servers or in the cloud.
• By installing and running software on hardware located within the
premises of the company, internet technology (IT) staff has physical
access to the data and can directly control the configuration,
management and security of the computing infrastructure and data.
How Startpage Private Search Works
2

25. Accessing Google Tech In Private
Consider Startpage your middleman.
1. Your search query gets sent to a cloud server that doesn’t
know you and communicates with Google. Google sends
back results to the cloud server.
2. Search results are then returned to “premise servers” that
are locked in cabinets, rather than going directly to your
browser. This middle step better protects you by hiding you
behind this privacy wall.
How Startpage Private Search Works
3

26. Un-profiled Search Results
The “premise servers” receive the results and send them back to you.
Since we have zero information about you, the search results cannot
be personalized ensuring you receive the same news and results as
anyone in the world. We call these “unprofiled search results.”
How Startpage Private Search Works
4

27. Browse with Anonymous View
Go beyond search and browse entire websites anonymously.
At the right of each organic search result, you’ll find a link to view
the website with “Anonymous View.”
This is achieved via a proxy that masks your identity from
websites, protecting you from ad tracking, digital profiling and/or
dangerous DNS attacks. The website only sees Startpage, while
you remain safely out of sight.
How Startpage Private Search Works
5

28. Meet Our Team
Kelly Finnerty
Director of Brand and Content
kelly@Startpage.com
@Kelly_Startpage
Alexandra Kubiak
Senior Product Manager
alexandra@Startpage.com

29. Stay informed and protect your privacy
https://www.eff.org/
Privacy Please!
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/Startpage
https://www.startpage.com/blog/
@Startpage
https://www.schneier.com/