Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has recently come under fire for their privacy policies regarding saving user information. If the bad publicity wasn’t enough, a host of search engine competitors have cropped up stating that they do not save any information.

According to new competitors like DuckDuckGo.com, the main concerns with Google’s privacy policy are that they sell user information to advertisers, while also saving user search histories that could potentially be hacked into or legally requested.

Google’s competitors, such as DuckDuckGo, Gibiru and HideMyAss, claim that they do not track searches while still providing fast, effective results. Some of these companies even show Google’s top results while preventing any Google cookies from accessing the searcher’s computer.

This could spell bad news for the usage rate of Google; the company has a history of being hacked, and users’ private Gmail accounts have been broken into in the past. However, storing and selling user information is a primary source of revenue for search engines, causing concern over how companies that claim not to save any information can turn a profit. But for now, these search engines pose a serious threat to Google’s popularity.

To contact the reporter on this story: at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com

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