Ixquick™ is a special search engine that values your privacy, and as such, doesn’t register or store your IP address.

In addition, Ixquick™ has just released HTTPS encryption. This will prevent outside parties from intercepting any data.

Particularly when you’re conducting sensitive searches, use Ixquick™ to hide your travels through the Internets (sic) and those series of tubes. When you’re on Ixquick’s™ HTTPS page, your searches will be hidden from prying eyes. A cautionary note, though: it may slow down your search speed.

As someone who dabbles in fiction writing, I often make searches that may seem, well, slightly criminal. For example, in one of my (unpublished!) thriller novels, I researched how my hero -- on the run from a murder rap -- could acquire a new identity, acquire a U.S. passport using that new identity, and open secret overseas bank accounts to hide his assets. I also researched a little-known government agency called FinCen, located in Langley, Virginia (read that as “CIA”), which tracks every bank transaction that passes through the Federal Reserve system. I learned that Costa Rica is a great place for ex-patriots but Belize is a better place to park your money. Just keep that under your hat ... or in your spy portfolio.

Fiction writing aside, think about those secret rooms reserved at your ISP providers for the NSA, and you can understand why everyone -- even if they’re not a terrorist, spy, or criminal -- might want to hide their Internet activities.

Ixquick™ is free, and no registration is required. It’s important to remember, too, that while Ixquick™ does not make logs of searches, it can’t protect users from spyware or malware.

Make sure you read up on ~~

How Ixquick™ protects your privacy. 

How to add Ixquick™ to your browser search engines. 

The inconvenient side of Ixquick™ is that it might make your ActiveRain stats incomplete. So when searching for ActiveRain posts, don’t use Ixquick™!