Brave has launched the public beta version of its search engine with anti-tracking features

Brave, a privacy-focused web browser, has been testing its own search engine for a while now with a small bunch of invited users. Now, it has rolled out the public beta version of the search engine through an official browser app and a new website. According to reports, Brave announced its own search engine earlier in March this year following the acquisition of Cliqz which is an anti-tracking browser with a built-in search engine. Brave Search, like DuckDuckGo, is working up to be an alternative to major search services like Google and Bing and is perfect for people who are concerned about data privacy (which should be all of us).

Brave claims that the Brave Search does not collect IP addresses and does not use personal data to improve search results so the user remains anonymous. Along with the Brave Browser, users can go online with Brave Search without being tracked thanks to a feature the company calls ‘Sheilds’. Shields blocks most trackers, advertisements, and unnecessary cookies.

If you do not want to download Brave and still want to use this anti-tracking search engine, you can use it on Safari, Google Chrome, and other browsers as well. Brave Search is built on top of a completely independent index, as 9to5Mac points out and it does not track users, their clicks, or their searches. It is currently available on the website, click here, and later this year, Brave Search is going to become the default search engine for Brave Browser. On paper, Brave Search sounds pretty perfect to keep those pesky ads away and protect your data and identity. 

Privacy has become important for many companies lately, including Apple. With iOS 14.5, Apple gave its users an option to stop apps from tracking them and they also launched the iCloud+ with Private Relay recently at WWDC 2021 that masks the users’ IP address to prevent it being tracked between apps and websites. You can read up more about what Private Relay is here. There are also rumours about Apple working on its own search engine, however, they have never mentioned anything publicly, so it remains to be seen.