Boycott Conflict Countries – Search Engines

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This website and blog is hosted on European servers and is administered by Mike Jay in England.
The political actions of specific countries around the world threaten all of us. Countries such as America, Russia and Israel have become substantially more geopolitically turbulent and this has gotten me to the point of
boycotting the services, apps and products of theses countries
to the best of my ability.

Not one person likes bullies. Why should you pay for the services, products and applications provided, supplied and developed in the countries being so?
This page will provide readers with information on the alternatives to web browser applications for the most part from European, UK, Canadian, Oceania and other global alternatives, which are equal to, or substantially better than the ones provided by the big companies headquartered in conflict countries.

Why should we boycott countries that threaten other countries, their citizens and individuals privacy?
No one should experience increasing anxiety and existential dread over their own safety anywhere on this planet. One of many ways to get countries governments to listen is if you stop buying into their countries economy. That mean’s products, services, applications, games, etc.
Those businesses end up with ever reducing profit which will drive them to the government which is failing all its citizens whilst mocking other countries governments. Individuals then get annoyed and governments typically act or u-turn on questionable practices.

Everyone should be questioning the global reliance and dependence of US services and products. And we seriously need to produce our own.

Is it possible to avoid search engines from these countries?
ABSOLUTELY!

In this instance, I’ve analysed the privacy of the search engines and each will display a Privacy Rating displayed as Low, Moderate, High and Highest using an infographic image like the example below.

This gives you far more detail to start deciding on suitable search engines.

This article, as with all my articles, is provided freely. I personally spent hours researching all of this data and inputting it. If it’s not too much to ask, could you consider sharing it with others.

Conflict Country Search Engines

If you're against the actions of the US and Russia, click here to explore the list to see if you're using one of their search engines.

The Alternatives

Go straight to the alternatives and explore what interesting search engines exist from Europe and other countries.

Alphabetical Search Engine List

Quickly find your current search engine and find out where they’re headquarters and developers are:

Boycotts
0
Alternatives
0

Clicking / pressing on a browser name below will take you to it in the article.

 Search EngineCompanyCountryWebsite SearchBrowser Extension SearchAndroid App SearchiOS App SearchPrivacyAI Overview
 AOL SearchBending SpoonsItalyLow
 Arc SearchAtlassianAustraliaHigh
 Ask.comInterActiveCorpUSALow
 Brave SearchBrave SoftwareUSAHigh
 DisconnectDisconnect IncUSAHighest
 DogpileSystem1USALow
 DuckDuckGoDuckDuckGo IncUSAHigh
 EcosiaEcosia GmbHGermanyModerate
 Elliot For WaterElliot For Water Organisation LtdUnited KingdomModerate
 EntirewebEntireweb Sweden Moderate ✅
 ExciteInterActiveCorpUSA – – – – Low – 
 GibiruGibiruUSA – – – – High – 
 GiveWaterGiveWater LLCUSA – – – – Moderate  –
 GoogleAlphabet Inc USA – – – – Low –
 KagiVladimir PrevolacUSA –– – – Highest– 
 KarmaKarma Search SASFranceHigh
 KiddleRussia/USA  –– – – High  –
 LiloQwant SASFrance High
 LycosBrightcom GroupIndia / USA– – – Low – 
 Microsoft BingMicrosoft Corporation USA –– – – Low– 
 MojeekMojeek Ltd United Kingdom Highest
 OceanHeroOceanHero Germany High
 QwantQwant SAS France High
 RamblerSberbank Russia – – – – Low – 
 Search EncryptSearch Encrypt LLCUSAHigh
 Startpage
System1USAHigh
 SwisscowsHulbee AGSwitzerlandHigh
 Walla!Eli AzurIsraelLow
 WebcrawlerSystem1USALow
 Wolfram AlphaWolfram ResearchUSA– – – – Moderate – 
 YahooApollo Global Management USA – – – – Low – 
 YandexConsortium.First Russia – – – – Moderate – 
 Search EngineCountryPrivacyAI Overview
 AOL SearchItalyLow
 Arc SearchAustraliaHigh
 Ask.comUSALow
 Brave SearchUSAHigh
 DisconnectUSAHighest
 DogpileUSALow
 DuckDuckGoUSAHigh
 EcosiaGermanyModerate
 Elliot For WaterUnited KingdomModerate
 EntirewebSweden Moderate ✅
 ExciteUSA Low – 
 GibiruUSA High – 
 GiveWaterUSA Moderate  –
 GoogleUSA Low –
 KagiUSAHighest– 
 KarmaFranceHigh
 KiddleRussia/USA High  –
 LiloFrance High
 LycosIndia / USALow – 
 Microsoft Bing USALow– 
 MojeekUnited Kingdom Highest
 OceanHeroGermany High
 QwantFrance High
 RamblerRussia Low – 
 Search EncryptUSAHigh
 Startpage
USAHigh
 SwisscowsSwitzerlandHigh
 Walla!IsraelLow
 WebcrawlerUSALow
 Wolfram AlphaUSAModerate – 
 YahooUSA Low – 
 YandexRussia Moderate – 

HOW WERE THE CONFLICT COUNTRIES ASSESSED?

The assessment of countries is undertaken based on how their governments are acting and matched against the following categories and then a trustworthiness score is calculated:

Conflict countries and the search engines developed in their countries

It’s good to know which search engines to avoid, based on where they are developed:

The lists below will be those for each country. Each of these search engines will NOT show any information about the functions nor will they link to any pages to download any of them.
There are no other countries to note except the two below.

Ask.com

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
IAC (InterActiveCorp)USANew York, USA USA

Info

Heavy use of third-party ad trackers.

Brave Search

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Brave Software IncUSASan Francisco, USA USA / Global

Info

 Independent index, no tracking, “Goggles” for custom ranking.

Disconnect

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Disconnect IncUSAPalo Alto, California, USA USA

Info

Acts as a “firewall” proxy for existing engines.

Dogpile

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
System1Marina del Rey, California, USMarina del Rey, California, US (Parent)
USA

Info

Aggregates results but includes significant ads.

DuckDuckGo

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
DuckDuckGo IncUSAPaoli, Pennsylvania, USA USAGlobal

Info

No tracking, blocks third-party trackers, no “filter bubble.”

Excite

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
IAC (InterActiveCorp)USANew York, USA USA

Info

Legacy portal with significant display ad-tracking.

Gibiru

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
GibiruUSACampbell, California, USA USA

Info

Focuses on “uncensored” results with no logs.

GiveWater

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
GiveWaterUSAChicago, Illinois, USA USA

Info

Revenue generates clean water projects.

Google

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Alphabet IncUSAMountain View, USA USA

Info

Extensive tracking, but offers “My Ad Center” & Auto-delete.

Kagi

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Vladimir PrelovacUSAPalo Alto, California, USA USA / Global / Remote

Info

Paid subscription model eliminates the need for ads.

Lycos

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Brightcom GroupIndia / USAHyderabad, India India

Info

Legacy engine utilising heavy third-party ad tech.

Microsoft Bing

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Microsoft CorporationUSARedmond, Washington, USA USA Global

Info

integrates with MS account; “Rewards” tracking.

Search Encrypt

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Search Encrypt LLCUSA / Cayman IslandsGeorge Town, Cayman Islands USA

Info

Uses local encryption to clear search history after inactivity.

Startpage

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
System1USAMarina del Rey, California, USA (Parent)
The Hague, Netherlands (Operations)
Netherlands

Info

Proxies Google results; “Anonymous View” feature.

WebCrawler

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
System1USALos Angeles California, USA USA

Info

Metasearch aggregator that relies on ad-revenue profiling.

Wolfram Alpha

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Wolfram ResearchUSAChampaign, Illinois, USA USA United Kingdom

Info

Stores queries for computation; no social tracking.

Yahoo

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Apollo Global ManagementUSANew York, USA USA

Info

Uses Bing’s backend; tracks for ad personalisation

Rambler

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
SberbankRussiaMoscow, Russia Moscow, Russia

Info

Major Russian portal with ecosystem-wide tracking.

Yandex

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Consortium.First
(Russian Investors)
RussiaMoscow, Russia Moscow, Russia

Info

Local data laws apply; offers “Protect” security.

There may be more search engines developed in Russia. However, at this time, these have yet to be found beyond the list of search engines that I have personally compiled.

Walla!

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
The Jerusalem PostIsraelTel Aviv, Israel Tel Aviv, Israel

Info

Local portal with significant display ad tracking.

At this time, the existence of further Israeli owned and/or developed search engines is unknown. This doesn’t mean they don’t exist. More likely they haven’t been discovered.

Suspicious search engines

These have been excluded on the basis of the mixed and undisclosed nature of business interests locations.

Kiddle

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Vitaliy Golunov (Likely)Russia / USAUndisclosedUSA / Global / Remote

Info

Filtered safe search for kids; logs are deleted hourly.

What Alternatives are available?

Knowing what alternatives exist to Conflict Countries search engines gives you a choice to move your data across to web browsers in countries considered trustworthy:

The Search Engines of Europe

Find out which search engines are developed within countries of the European continent.

An American Search Provider Goes Italian!

AOL Search

The AOL search engine is owned by Italian technology firm, Bending Spoons.

Corporate Owner Corporate Owner Location Headquarters Location Developer Location
Bending Spoons Italy Milan, Italy Milan, Italy / USA

Info

Legacy portal utilising Bing index and standard tracking.

Function Availability
Search Results Provided by Microsoft Bing is used to provide search results.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Maps Search
Projects
Web Browser Extension
Mobile Application

Available Functions for AOL Search

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search AOL Online 

Help plant trees by searching

Ecosia

The Ecosia search engine is developed in Berlin, Germany and is suitable for those who are climate and environmentally conscious. Using it will plant trees.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Ecosia GmbH
(Trust-owned)
GermanyBerlin, GermanyBerlin, Germany

Info

Anonymises data within 7 days; no data selling.

AI Overviews are provided by Staan (EUSP). The optional Ecosia Chat uses the GPT-4o mini model from OpenAI.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided by Microsoft Bing, Google and EUSP (Staan) indexes are used when searching. EUSP is an index based in France and Denmark to try and reduce US dependence, it was launched late 2025/early 2026.
Image Search✅
Video Search✅
Shopping SearchBasic
News Search✅
Music Search❌
Maps Search✅  via Bing Maps
Projects✅  Searches help towards planting trees
Web Browser Extension❌
Mobile Application✅  Ecosia for Android and iOS, acts as a private search web browser.

Available Functions for Ecosia

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Ecosia Online                     Download For Android                 Download for iOS/iPadOS

            Ecosia Mobile web browser                                                     

Help fund water infrastructure by searching

Elliot For Water

Elliot For Water is a search engine Chrome and Firefox browser extension that is developed in London, United Kingdom and is suitable for those who are looking to make sure their searches fund water infrastructure projects.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Elliot For Water Organisation LtdUnited KingdomLondon, United KingdomParis, France

Info

Ad revenue funds water infrastructure.

Underlying AI/Workflow tech is provided by Fidsy.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided byThe default is Microsoft Bing. However, a dropdown selection allows users to select from Microsoft Bing, Google, Ecosia and DuckDuckGo.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search
Projects✅ Searches fund water infrastructure
Web Browser Extension✅ Only available as a Chromium/Blink and Firefox/Gecko Extension
Mobile Application ❌

Available Functions for Elliot for Water

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Install Chrome Extension                   Install Firefox Extension       

Find out if services are down and search for what you need

EntireWeb

EntireWeb is a real-time uptime and outage monitoring service for over 6,700 online services, apps, and digital experiences worldwide. It also acts as a search engine. Developed in Halmstad, Sweden.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Entireweb Sweden ABSwedenHalmstad, SwedenHalmstad, Sweden

Info

Standard European data protection.

AI Answer is provided as a service but there is no information about the provider.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided byEntireweb provides results from its own index. It uses its own crawler called Entireweb Spider.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search
Projects
Web Browser Extension✅ Optional Chromium/Blink Extension
Mobile Application ❌

Available Functions for Entireweb

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Entireweb Online                Install Chrome Extension 

Help protect animals, biodiversity and climate by searching

Karma

The Karma search engine is developed in Paris, France and is suitable for those who want to protect animals and biodiversity by searching.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Karma Search SASFranceLyon, FranceFrance

Info

Charitable; does not share personal data with ads.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided by Brave provides the results for Karma.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search✅  via Google Maps
Projects✅  Searches aim to protect animals and biodiversity
Web Browser Extension✅ Optional Chromium/Blink Extension
Mobile Application

Available Functions for Karma

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Karma Online                    Install Chrome Extension

Help protect animals, biodiversity and climate by searching

Lilo

The Lilo search engine is developed in Paris, France owned by Qwant (also included here) and is suitable for those who want their searches to support a multitude of humanitarian, animal and environmental projects.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Qwant SASFranceParis, FranceParis, France

Info

Charitable focus; blocks trackers; no data selling.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided byMicrosoft Bing and Google
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search✅  via Google Maps or Bing Maps
Projects✅  Searches aim to provide support for animal, humanitarian and environmental causes
Web Browser Extension✅ Optional Chromium/Blink Extension

Available Functions for Lilo

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Lilo Online                      Install Browser Extension                Download For Android                Download for iOS/iPadOS

                  Lilo Mobile web browser                       

The search engine considered to have the highest privacy in Europe

Mojeek

The Mojeek search engine is developed in London, United Kingdom and it uses its own independent crawler (MojeekBot). Meaning it isn't reliant on other search engines such as Google or Bing for its results and it is one of the most private search engines available.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Mojeek LimitedUnited KingdomLondon, United KingdomLondon, United Kingdom

Info

Independent crawler; no tracking or logs.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided byMojeek provides results from its own index as a result of additions made by its own crawler called MojeekBot.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search
Projects
Web Browser Extension
Mobile Application

Available Functions for Mojeek

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Mojeek Online 

Help clean up ocean bound and present plastic bottles by searching

Ocean Hero

The Ocean Hero search engine is developed in Düsseldorf, Germany and it seeks to use your searches to recover ocean bound and present plastic bottles.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
OceanHero GmbHGermanyBerlin, GermanyBerlin, Germany

Info

Revenue collects ocean plastic; no user profiling.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided byMicrosoft Bing index is used whilst searching using a web browser. The Google index can be used if you use the optional web browser extension.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search
Projects✅Searches help recover ocean bound and present plastic bottles
Web Browser Extension✅ Optional Chromium/Blink Extension
Mobile Application

Available Functions for Ocean Hero

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Ocean Hero Online                Install Chrome Extension 

Focused on privacy

Qwant

The Qwant search engine is developed in Paris, France which focuses on user privacy and provides decent results.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Qwant SASFranceParis, FranceParis, Rouen and Nice, France

Info

GDPR-strict, no user profiling or tracking cookies.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided byQwantify, its own independent indexer and crawler for European local results and Microsoft Bing for global.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search
Projects
Web Browser Extension✅  Optional Chromium/Blink Extension
Mobile Application✅  Qwant for Android and iOS, acts as a private search web browser.

Available Functions for Qwant

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Qwant Online                    Install Chrome Extension                Download For Android                Download for iOS/iPadOS

                  Qwant Mobile web browser                                

Private family friendly search with direct music searching

Swisscows

The Swisscows search engine is developed in Egnach, Switzerland and is privacy focused and being family focused

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
Hulbee AGSwitzerlandEgnach, SwitzerlandEgnach, Switzerland

Info

Family-friendly, Swiss-based, zero-data storage.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided byMicrosoft Bing, Brave and Swisscows own index are used.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search
Projects
Web Browser Extension
Mobile Application

Available Functions for Swisscows

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Search Swisscows Online 

Other Non-Conflict Search Engines

These search engines are provided from countries within other continents.

America is ditched, pushes past the group of galahs and goes down under

Arc Search

The Arc Search engine, even though still developed in the US is now owned by Atlassian by Australia.

Corporate OwnerCorporate Owner LocationHeadquarters LocationDeveloper Location
AtlassianAustraliaSydney, Australia USA / Remote

Info

“Browse for Me” feature blocks ads and trackers by default.

FunctionAvailability
Search Results Provided by Arc uses a hybrid system. A standard text based search will provide results from Google. The “Browse for Me” function uses a propriety aggregator AI to scrape the top 6 to 10 relevant results from multiple search engines, the primary ones being Google and Microsoft Bing.
Image Search
Video Search
Shopping Search
News Search
Music Search
Maps Search
Projects
Web Browser Extension
Mobile Application✅  via the required Arc Browser (web browser) on Android and iOS/iPadOS only.

Available Functions for Arc Search

Give your chosen function icon a press, you’ll see the function indicated below them:

Download For Android                Download for iOS/iPadOS

                  Arc mobile web browser                           

I’ve provided the details and now leave that list of conflict countries search engines and European, Global community and Asia alternatives in your hands.

The choice is now yours (or not if you’re not thinking of changing).
Hopefully you found this useful.

Keep an eye out for more of these articles, as there will be more.

If you’ve spotted an error or found a search engine that I’ve missed in this list, feel free to @ me on Bluesky.

@mikejay.link

Example message:
“@mikejay.link
Article: bcc-searchengines, Issue: Proofread issue in Mojeek + Fact Issue Arc Browser, add “[Info]”.”

Mike Jay

Avid experimenter and creator of various forms of media, learning by doing and repeating. Main interests include: Photography, Music Production and Composition, Experimental Design, Amateur Meteorology, Statistics and Analytics, Web Design, Experimental Programming and Spreadsheets