Thank you for the reply and advice!
I’m just starting to be more aware, especially considering this day and age. I also think online privacy matters, even if you’re not doing anything illegal. 
Protecting our personal information online helps prevent identity theft, keeps our data safe from breaches, and reduces the risk of surveillance and tracking by governments and corporations. Plus, it helps us maintain control over your online experience and prevents invasive targeted advertising. 
Startpage sells your data after being bought
Is there any actual evidence for this happening? Sure, they got bought but that doesn’t prove they are selling your data.
brave sells your data too
They do? I’ve never once heard of Brave selling your data from the search engine before.
ddg is not a saint, they allowed trackers too but at leas they are not bought by a shady company
There are no saints when Google is the harsh competition. Personally, I still think it’s infinitely better to use StartPage, DDG or Brave Search than it is to use Bing or whatever.
In a utopian world we would all be using something decentralised, but honestly it’s a long way to go before those are ever going to be as good as the alternatives. I regularly go from one search engine to another when the first one couldn’t help me, and I really despise that.
False. You can disable whatever about crypto on brave.
And FB doesn’t work without cookies on.
I’m just starting to be more aware, especially considering this day and age. I also think online privacy matters, even if you’re not doing anything illegal.
yes, but… also no. not really.
Protecting our personal information online helps prevent identity theft,
that ones easy. dont give out your personal information freely to companies, websites, apps, etc that you dont trust.
keeps our data safe from breaches,
again, same thing. dont give your information to companies you dont trust.
and reduces the risk of surveillance and tracking by governments and corporations.
i hate to break it to you but if govt’s andor corporations wanna track you… theyre gonna track you. it doesnt matter what steps you take, even on a vpn… theyre still gonna track you if you give them a reason to. the only way to actually avoid tracking would be to buy a burner phone, with cash, in an area that you dont normally live, without your normal phone on you, and hopefully youre not driving a modern vehicle, and you somehow avoid any and all cameras along the way - which is impossible because they are everywhere. so in other words… if you give a reason to be tracked, you will be tracked. if you dont have a reason to be tracked, you wont be bothered.
Plus, it helps us maintain control over your online experience and prevents invasive targeted advertising.
this is about the only actual point that makes sense that i agree with. however you can use adblockers to stop the second one and you can turn off personalization for almost all websites to avoid the first one.
believe me. you say you are “just starting to be aware” - well ive been aware. very aware. i know exactly how bad it was 10 years ago and i know how bad it still was a few years ago and only recently did things start improving and my understanding of those things reach a point where i actually trust some companies. because the truth is, if youre online, you have to trust every company involved in that connection. at least somewhat. that means your device - all of the hardware and software included in it - your ISP or cellphone provider - your DNS provider - whatever website youre using… theres a lot of moving parts and any one of them can see pretty much anything and everything no matter what you do. so its better to just not worry so much about it and just choose companies you can trust. which admittedly is a limited choice, but the only way to actually be 100% anonymous online is to not be online.
okay thats fair. thats why i would say its important to choose to work with - or give your data to - companies that you trust and be aware of how many are involved in any connection to any website youre using.
those would be the software and hardware makers of your device, your isp or cellphone provider, your dns provider, and the website your connecting to. obviously some of those choices are relatively limited, but the biggest and easiest one you can make is what websites you use. i use reddit for social media and refuse to connect to any website that is owned or related to zuck because fuck zuck. if you havent figured that out at this point idk what to tell you.
so i agree with you overall thats a really shitty situation that never shouldve happened and i would hope that any website or company that has my data - which is a lot of them - would stand for human rights.
obviously zuck and meta do not. all big tech companies have said a lot the last few years about basically “doing better” - however some have actually made noticeable changes. the ones that i continue to use all have made changes that seem to actually follow with what they say they will do. meta/facebook/zuck on the other hand have not, whatsoever, they do the same thing that a certain political party does which is say one thing that sounds good but is ultimately meaningless while doing the exact opposite of that and hoping nobody notices.
Yep, search by yourself “startpage gets bought” “ddg allow third party trackers” “brave allows third party trackers " brave browser puts crypto links without user content”
Hey, I hear you loud and clear, but Im not trying to turn into an internet hermit just yet. Sure, online privacy is crucial, but I can’t let it rain on my digital parade. I’m all about finding that sweet spot between vigilance and living my best online life and simply just trying to be a bit safer. Time to brush off the doom and gloom. 
Thanks for your replies.
Yep, search by yourself “startpage gets bought”
StartPage got bought by an ad company. That is obviously no good. But so far, they seem to be operating independently. Regardless, there’s zero evidence of them selling data and you know it.
ddg allow third party trackers
Yes, that was a licensing thing with Bing. It’s a pity they didn’t share that with us, but ultimately it’s a nothing-burger compared to the straight up crimes against humanity that the competition are doing
brave allows third party trackers
Yeah that’s for usability. The biggest advantage of Brave is that for the most part it’s “install and use”, rather than “spend 30 min setting it up with the optimal settings and pray nothing breaks”.
brave browser puts crypto links without user content
100% agree that that was a dumb thing to do. Still, that’s not evidence of them selling your data. Not in the slightest.
okay, good point. not really companies i trust, no. however “companies” are not people, but people make up companies. ive done enough research and reading into the ones i trust to trust them as much as i possibly can without personally knowing them. which is actually more than i trust most people _irl, unfortunately. luckily i tend to be a pretty good judge of character, and authenticity is difficult to fake.
I told you to search, there’s evidence, but it seems all the evidence i could give to you would be tejected regardless what they did.
For starters you’re being incredibly vague here. Evidence of what? For which company you mentioned?
Secondly, if you’re so sure, feel free posting a link proving any of this.
At this point I think we’re approaching rule 12: Fueling Conspiracy Thinking Isn’t Healthy
I told you to search it by yourself, i’m not conspiracy fueling, i just told the truth, you said you found all this stuff, so don’t act like you didn’t see nothing. I’m at work and i will need to leave my phone soon, but if you want i can provide them in a few hours.
Just stop, you already saw everything, is not enough for you to see that all i told is real? Where is the fueling? Anyways… Just stop, this will not gonna end in any good way.
Just stop, you already saw everything, is not enough for you to see that all i told is real? Where is the fueling?
I’ve read all of the news articles you’ve mentioned over the years. None of it implies anything is being sold here.
The fueling is in the fact that you provide evidence for A, but you claim you’ve provided evidence for B. Doesn’t really make sense to me.
Just stop, this will not gonna end in any good way.
?