Verizon Media Launches Its Own Search Engine With Enhanced Privacy Features

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Verizon Media has announced the launch of OneSearch, a browser that doesn’t track, store, or share your personal or search data.

Privacy isn’t only a major concern among social media users nowadays. Anyone using the internet wants to know that their data is safe from exploitation. This concern has lead to a new trend toward browsers that safeguard people’s privacy. As a result, companies that you just wouldn’t expect to be in the space, are now building their own. One of these is Verizon Media, which has the launch of its own “consumer search experience with enhanced privacy features.”

Verizon Media promises that the browser, called OneSearch, “doesn’t track, store, or share personal or search data with advertisers, giving users greater control of their personal information in a search context.”

OneSearch’s features for consumers that are focused on privacy include:

No cookie tracking, retargeting, or personal profiling
No sharing of personal data with advertisers
No storing of user search history
Unbiased, unfiltered search results
Encrypted search terms

Furthermore, with Advanced Privacy Mode enabled, the browser’s encrypted search results link expires in an hour, thus bringing yet one more layer of privacy to the mix. This is especially useful when multiple people use the same device “or if a search results link is shared with a friend.”

Verizon Media launched its own search engine with enhanced privacy features… it’s free… but get this: it’s ad-supported.

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It is now available for free on desktop and mobile (Android and iOS later this month) and can be downloaded here, but security-conscious businesses can also partner with Verizon Media to integrate it into their own products, allowing their customers more control over their security and privacy. For the time being, OneSearch is only available in North America.

The catch? Well, OneSearch is ad-supported… Yes, you heard that right. Verizon Media says that the “ads will be contextual, based on factors like search keywords, not cookies or browsing history,” which means you could search for “flights to Paris,” and get ads for sites where you can book flights to Paris.