How SearchLock Protects Your Searches

Our internet privacy is really in crisis right now with all the spying and hacking. We, at SearchLock, realize that. We make sure that we protect your searches as much as we can and we thank you for trusting us. However, How does SearchLock work? How does SearchLock protect you from all the spies and hackers out there trying to take advantage of your personal data?

Here are 7 ways that SearchLock ensures your privacy is kept private:

1. SearchLock intercepts privacy-unsafe searches and delivers privacy-friendly results.

Most search engines track your searches and store your search history in such a way that they can be connected with your name and other personal data. SearchLock acts as a shield between you and companies who intend to track you. The SearchLock extension detects when your search queries or keystrokes are headed towards a search engine that will track you, then intercepts them and redirects your queries to SearchLock’s privacy-enhanced search results page before you are tracked.

2. SearchLock prevents keystroke logging by popular search engines.

When you search the web without the SearchLock extension, your keystrokes are sent to the search engine you are using to provide search suggestions. While this can be a convenient feature, your keystrokes are logged and can be connected to you. SearchLock prevents your keystrokes from being sent to the search engines where they would be logged.

3. Using SearchLock disassociates your searches from your online accounts.

The most popular search engines offer other services, which often collect sensitive personal information such as email (Gmail, Outlook Webmail, and Yahoo! Mail) and social web services (Google+ and YouTube). When you search the web and remain logged into these accounts, your search queries can be connected to your profile.

SearchLock completely disconnects your searches from being tied to your email accounts and social profiles.

4. SearchLock does not retain server logs.

Most websites have server logging enabled by default. This means that in addition to being tracked by any tracking tools the website may be using (such as Google Analytics), your visit is recorded together with the date and time, your IP address, and other information about your computer and web browser. This information could potentially be used to identify you.

SearchLock does not use any tracking tools that compromise your privacy and we have completely disabled logging from our servers so that your visits are not recorded.

5. SearchLock prevents your ISP from tracking your search terms.

Some search engines do not encrypt your queries, which means your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can intercept and access them and connect them to your web and/or cable account. When you add SearchLock to your browser, your search queries are encrypted so that your ISP cannot read them.

6. SearchLock encrypts your queries with SSL and perfect forward secrecy.

When you search with SearchLock, your query is encrypted with an SSL implementation that maintains an A rating with Qualys SSL Labs. We have gone a step further and implemented perfect forward secrecy (PFS), which is even harder to decrypt.

7. SearchLock does not request, log or share your personal information.

SearchLock doesn’t collect or maintain any personal information. Our agreements with our advertising partner also have specific provisions that prevent us from sharing personal data with them.

If you still aren’t using SearchLock, we’d be honored to protect your searches. You can download SearchLock here.