Proxy services allow web users to see pages via a third party's
web server, meaning that the operator of the page only sees the IP
address of that server. Using a proxy means that the site operator
will not know the IP address of the page viewer or be able to place
tracking cookies on the viewer's computer.
The service is being launched by Startpage, the US brand used by
search engine company Ixquick. Ixquick was the first company to
receive a 'privacy seal' from European Data Protection Supervisor
Peter Hustinx for its attempts to improve the privacy protections
afforded to its users.
In 2006 Ixquick decided to stop collecting the IP addresses of
its users when processing their searches.
Ixquick operates as a metasearch engine, meaning that it
collates results from other search engines, such as Google.
Consequently, it handles less data for fewer purposes than other
search engines. However, European data protection authorities have
put pressure on other search engine operators to reduce the period
for which they keep a log of IP addresses and the searches carried
out by users of those machines. They recommend a retention period
of six months or less.
Microsoft announced last week that it was reducing from 18
months to six the length of time for which it keeps search data.
Google retains it for 9 months while Yahoo! keeps it for just 90
days.
Ixquick is now launching the proxy service as an extension of
its privacy-protecting services.
"People are more concerned about online data retention policies
than ever before," said chief executive Robert Beens. "We wanted to
offer them a useful tool and this proxy is a logical extension of
our services."
"A search engine is a starting point for people to visit other
pages. Now our users can take the privacy they get with Startpage
to the next step, and go privately to the sites they have found as
well," he said. "This proxy completes the total search privacy
picture."
A guide to the service published on the company's website said
that it effectively stands between the user and the website to be
visited.
"Startpage goes to the website you select, retrieves the page,
and displays it for you," it said. "You are invisible to the
website. They see only Startpage's IP address, not yours. Since you
never make direct contact with the website, they can't see or store
cookies on your browser."
The company said that the free service would go live on Data Privacy Day, which is tomorrow.
Beens told OUT-LAW Radio in 2008 that the company had not always
taken such a hard line on user privacy but that he was reviewing
the company in 2006 and realised that it was not necessarily in its
interests to hold on to information.
"I asked the technology people what exactly are we keeping and
why are we keeping those data. And they gave me the list of issues
and items that we were keeping and recording in our log files and I
said why are we keeping those data? And they didn't give me a good
answer," he said.
"I said well if there's no reason for us to keep the data why
don't we get rid of it. I don't want to have the liability on our
company to keep someone's personal data because it is a liability
and the only safe way of keeping someone's personal data is by
deleting it," he said.
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