Best of 2021: Your favorite Startpage blogs

Which articles were your favorite this year? We look back at our most popular blog articles.

The year 2021 is drawing to a close. It’s been an exciting year – both for data privacy and for Startpage. The Startpage team strives to provide you with interesting and informative articles, including interviews with privacy experts from around the world and helpful guides on how to improve your privacy. This year we published no less than 55 Startpage articles, 17 guest posts, 18 interviews with data protection experts and 4 data protection guides. In this post we look back on our most successful blog articles from 2021.

But wait! How do we even know what our most-read posts are without tracking readers? Good question. We stay true to our mission on our blog by never collecting any personal data from our visitors. In order to still be able to understand which topics interest you most, we have integrated an anonymous “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” button at the end of our articles and most recently, started tracking the number of page views.

Here are the most popular blog posts from 2021:

5th place: We are on the verge of losing our privacy forever

Just in time for Data Privacy Day, on January 28, 2021 Startpage’s co-founder and CEO Robert E.G. Beens wrote an open letter that was also published on Fast Company, referring to the appalling state of digital privacy and the ways we can now regain control of our online privacy. He writes,

“We are at a critical turning point in history. We know what is happening to our data, we know the consequences, and we have the resources to take back control of what is rightfully ours. In this critical year we have to choose one path: one is comfortable, but also devastating. The second is slightly more difficult, but it leads to more independence and personal freedom.” 

If you want to read the article in full, you can do so here → We are on the verge of losing our privacy forever

4th place: How to update your Microsoft Windows settings for privacy

Are your devices set up for privacy? In our Privacy Guides section, we provide easy steps to make privacy your default on all your devices. It’s no surprise that our Microsoft Guide was one of the most popular guides this year, given that Microsoft continues to be the most used operating system. 

If you want to read the article in full, you can do so here → How to update your Microsoft Windows settings for privacy

3rd place: How to be more private online in less than 5 minutes

Do you have 5 minutes to spare? Getting started with privacy isn’t difficult as many may think. You’d be surprised how much you can get done with three easy steps in less than five minutes. Regardless of whether you’re tech savvy or not, anyone can make their online experience more private. 

If you want to read the article in full, you can do so here → How to be more private online in less than 5 minutes

2nd place: What’s Startpage’s revenue model?

How does Startpage actually make money? It’s a question we get asked very often. That is why we have summarized all the details about our revenue model in one article for you. In a nutshell: As with other anonymous search engines, Startpage’s revenue model is based on contextual advertising. This means the ads you see on Startpage are based only on the search query, not your personal data. If you want to find out more about it, you can read the article here →

If you want to read the article in full, you can do so here → What’s Startpage’s revenue model?

1st place: How Startpage’s private search engine protects you

How does Startpage protect your privacy? Great question! Startpage goes above and beyond to protect all users’ privacy by never logging any personal data and giving users the freedom to search and browse in private. Privacy advocate and ThinkPrivacy’s founder, Dan Arel explains how Startpage’s privacy-protecting feature Anonymous View sets it apart from the competition,

“Only Startpage offers Anonymous View which allows you to visit a website with complete anonymity by redirecting you through a firewall meaning that your IP is masked, your browser fingerprint is hidden, and your location is hidden. Anonymous View lets your search go one step further and offers protection when you leave the search results.”

If you want to read the article in full, you can do so here → How Startpage’s private search engine protects you

Now it’s your turn: Your opinion is important to us

Did your favorite blog not make it onto the list? Would you like to write a guest post on a specific topic, or do you know someone who we should interview for our Privacy in Action series? Write us a short email with your feedback! Precisely because we do not collect any data, your feedback is incredibly valuable to us, in order to make our blog even more interesting and to provide you with exciting articles every week. 

Thank you to all of our readers for your interest, the feedback about the buttons and the lively exchange via email and in the social networks. We look forward to every hint which topics you are particularly interested in and look forward to a new year with many exciting topics and interview partners.