Disconnect tool lets you use Google Search without being tracked

After Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, Internet privacy is on everyone’s minds. One way in particular that people are looking for privacy is through their search engines. Google and Bing’s business models depend on using your search requests to serve up personalized ads. Alternative search engines such as DuckDuckGo have tried to fight this by promising not to track its users. A new search engine, called Disconnect, is tackling search privacy with a different approach.

Disconnect Search, a tool that lets people use popular search engines without having their queries logged or tracked, just got easier to use. On Monday, the outfit took the wraps off a new version that’s accessible through a webpage, an Android app that should come out of beta today, and browser plugins for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. When the tool was first unveiled in October last year, it was only available as a browser plugin for Chrome and Firefox, much like the original Disconnect product, which helps people block the companies that track them online. Since then, Disconnect has gained a degree of prominence by having its search productbundled as one of the privacy-enhancing tools on the Blackphone. Blackphone runs a version of Android, so it’s no surprise that Disconnect Search is available as an Android app.