New Search Engine Tool Hides Your Activity from NSA Spying

High tech start-up, Disconnect recently launched their newest product helping internet users browse the web without fear of being tracked by US spy agencies. The newly released Disconnect Search is available as a browser extension for Firefox and Google Chrome. Disconnect has been developing privacy tools for a few years and currently over 1 million people are using their other privacy related apps every week.

According to a news article by TechCrunch, “Disconnect Search works along four channels, with some of the method taking a hat tip from VPN tunnelling services that mask your IP address.”

Here’s how the company goes about keeping your web activity private:

• Search queries are routed through Disconnect’s servers, “which makes the queries look like they’re coming from Disconnect instead of a specific user’s computer,” the company says.
• As a result, search engines are prevented (blocked) from passing keywords to the sites that are visited from search results pages.
• All queries are encrypted, which prevents ISPs from seeing them.
• And on top of this, Disconnect doesn’t log any keywords, personal information, or IP addresses after it routes your query to its own servers.

As an iPhone app developer in Chicago and strong proponent of personal privacy rights it is encouraging to see start-up companies getting involved. Organizations such as Disconnect and the Electronic Frontier Foundation help ensure that our civil liberties are being protected. Illegal spying programs are a black mark upon the American values including each individuals right to privacy and laws governing surveillance through due process. The iPad app developer community stands staunchly against unlawful spying activities and instead urges the public to use all tools at their disposal to protect sensitive data from prying eyes.