Η Startpage, είναι μια μηχανή αναζήτησης που έχει σαν στόχο την protection of the user's privacy and is based in the Netherlands. The company added a new section to its FAQ by clicking heres of which answers the questions asked for change recently made property.
Privacy One Group Ltd, which acquired a stake in the company, is owned by the advertising company System1. System1 describes itself as a company that uses "technology to make advertising better and safer, while respecting the privacy of consumers".
The change raised many questions, as Startpage and System1 / Privacy One Group Ltd did not provide much explanation for the details of the deal.
Startpage published recently an article on her website, which attempts to answer some of these questions. The purpose of the publication is to reassure service users that the agreement will not affect consumer privacy:
- The Startpage base remains in the Netherlands / EU and the Startpage founders will continue to manage the company.
- The founders of Startpage continue to have the “control all privacy applications“. The company states that "Startpage founders may unilaterally reject any technical changes that may adversely affect users' privacy" and that "end users should be notified of any privacy-related changes".
- The user's IP addresses will not be shared "anywhere".
- The way ads are displayed has not changed.
- System1 holds a majority stake in Startpage.
- System1 "businesses" generally do not create or maintain user profiles and store or process minimal user information.
- Privacy One Group Ltd is a company registered in Delaware.
But this post leads to another question: why System1 / Privacy One Group Limited invested in Startpage? What is the motivation of the advertising company?
Startpage also attempts to answer this question by providing a statement from President Michael Blend and CEO Ian Weingarten of System1.
According to company representatives, the investment was:
... because we believe that Startpage serves a critical role in preserving consumer privacy, and we hope that theterms will help Startpage bring privacy to millions of new users around the world.
The deal, however, as we mentioned yesterday, was not made public, or to put it better, only part of it was made public. System1 not appeared from the beginning, and of course the explanations given by all parties do not seem to be convincing.
