Can't use Startpage

[bob3160]

Not a problem when using Chrome as the browser.

[REDACTED]

doesn't  matter if I use IE11 or firefox results are the same.
Object: https://startpage.com/do/search
infection : jsi scriptIP-inf[TRJ]
pocess:  C:program files(x86)\firefox.exe

I am having the exact same issue on Firefox. About once a day Avast blocks Startpage.com when I do a web search and I can't do any more research on the website until I reboot my computer..

Please do fix this, this is a false positive and I am really considering switching AV because this is very annoying..

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I found if I turn off  https scanning in Avast everything works fine.

[REDACTED]

Hi,

I tried disabling HTTPS scanning and indeed it worked.. In this way Startpage is no longer bothered by this false positive..

But I don't wish to turn off HTTPS scanning permenantly, I think this is a useful feature. The only trouble I have is with Startpage.. Can Avast fix this in an update or something? How can they be notified?

I found a way around this in the meantime, by using the About Us page of Startpage (which has a search bar above) as my home page I don't have this problem even with HTTPS scanning enabled. See: https://www.startpage.com/eng/what-makes-startpage-special.html? But I can't set it as my default search engine in Firefox because avast will block it at some point so I've put DuckDuckgo in that place in the meantime..

[REDACTED]

I found the culprit.In my case it wasn't Avast it was my Zemana anti logger with it's SSL protection turned on.Once I turned off the SSL protection everything works just fine in IE. and in firefox.

[REDACTED]

Ah.. For me it is Avast HTTPS scanning that is causing the issue, I made the test when it was bocked and once this feature is turned off I can get back to access Startpage.

I don't have Zemana anti logger... I can only conclude that the culprit, a so called 'infection'  is a false positive detected by HTTPS Scanning.. since I have 100% confidence that Startpage is secure and I venture to say that it is more secure than Google or Bing in terms of privacy for that matter.

[bob3160]

Ah.. For me it is Avast HTTPS scanning that is causing the issue, I made the test when it was bocked and once this feature is turned off I can get back to access Startpage.

I don't have Zemana anti logger... I can only conclude that the culprit, a so called 'infection'  is a false positive detected by HTTPS Scanning.. since I have 100% confidence that Startpage is secure and I venture to say that it is more secure than Google or Bing in terms of privacy for that matter.

There really is no "Privacy" on the internet no matter which browser, search engine or communications program you use.
One might simply make things a bit harder but, that's about all you can hope to accomplish.

[polonus]

Hi bob3160,

You are so right and therefore one should have this knowledge always at the back of one's head.
If you want something known to the end of days, well just publish it on the Interwebs.
Everything is logged, stored, monitored, tracked and the data land on someone's desk to-night,
hopefully anonymous, but that is only what we can hope for, we got no guarantees for that.
Be it an ad-seller, a marketeer, a harvester, a hacker, cyber-criminal or an automated good or ill bot.

See how many features avast needs now to keep us relatively secure and still we should not venture out into Internet's dark alleys,
where cyber-crimnal generals want to contact us via Skype and scammers lure around every corner to stab us onto  their malcoded forks.

Come to these here forums and learn from the best how to avoid malcode and how to best  protect against it
(and how to recover from infections).

Hanging out here I have learned to digest code like the best of connoisseurs and when the odor of malcode fills the air,
it's stenchy taste hangs on my palate while alerts pop-up in my malcode scan results.

Realize all this and enjoy your secure browsing,

polonus

[REDACTED]

There really is no "Privacy" on the internet no matter which browser, search engine or communications program you use.
One might simply make things a bit harder but, that's about all you can hope to accomplish.

I have to disagree with that.. That's what some people want you to believe in order to have easy access to your data with your explicit consent. As far as search engines goes, DuckDuckGo or Startpage (by Ixquick) do not record your IP adress as well as any personal identification about you. Nada. They don't need to built a profile based on your searches, they don't have anything to 'hand over' therefore they can make sure our privacy is respected. None of the big players may it be Google, Bing or Yandex (Russia) are doing that.

You can use the internet and retain your privacy but that won't be the case if you are using services engaged in data mining for targeting purpose like Google or Facebook. Their very business model is based on gathering as much data about you as they can.. As for myself, I avoid those as much as possible.

I make a distinction between 'privacy' and 'anonymity', the bad guys engaged in criminal activity online can, with a search warrant, get tracked and arrested by the authorities. The laws are the laws and I am OK with that. I personally have nothing to hide but I won't tolerate intrusion in my private life by businesses or that my data be monetized and my browsing habbits be tracked with cookies and be sold to advertisers who in turn want to know everything about me.

What you post on the internet, such as on a forum like Avast is of course not 'private'. Everybody can read it and it will be stored indefinitly on a server. But I really don't need Google to scan all my emails, to mine my browsing history and track my habbits. This is 'private'. Nor do we need the NSA to spy on citizens for no particular reason.

[Para-Noid]

It isn't the search engines that you should worry about. It's other entities like hackers, redirects/misdirects,
websites, ISP's, governments (don't forget the CIA, GCHQ, Mossad and the Australians are in the process of
breaking The Tor browser.) that are watching you. Someone somewhere is tracking you.
The best you can do is to protect your security.

Privacy does not exist on the internet!

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It isn't the search engines that you should worry about. It's other entities like hackers, redirects/misdirects,
websites, ISP's, governments (don't forget the CIA, GCHQ, Mossad and the Australians are in the process of
breaking The Tor browser.) that are watching you. Someone somewhere is tracking you.
The best you can do is to protect your security.

I am sure there is some snooping and tracking by spy agencies, don't get me wrong. Edward Snowden opened up the eyes of many people as to just how far this is going on. The bad guys are always there to try to steal data as well.. But one step in the right direction is to avoid businesses that disregard privacy rights. Google and Facebook probably have to worst trackrecord on privacy (they both have extensive wikipedia pages of their own relating this subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google) and one reason for that is their very business model which is based on tracking people and knowing as much as possible about their browsing habbits to generate revenue..

Modern life does not have to result in a dramatic loss of privacy and even if personal data are seen by some entities as being the black oil of the 21st century it's up to us stop giving them away to that which doesn't strive to respect privacy. There is various exemple of how services can be made privacy-oriented and how the user can protect himself. There is some very useful extensions like Adblock Edge, NoScript, Ghostery or Disconnect that remove most of the tracking online for you. If you are using Firefox, you can also set the browser to refuse third-party cookies and/or eliminate all of them when exiting the browser. We are under no obligation to use websites like Facebook either.

There are alternatives more privacy-oriented:

Google Chrome -> Firefox
Google Search -> Startpage or DuckDuckGo
Gmail or Outlook -> Tutanota, ProtonMail, Lavaboom or Startmail
Google+ or Facebook -> Whaller
Youtube -> Vimeo or Dailymotion
Google Doc or Office -> Libreoffice
Google Drive -> ownCloud or Mega
Google Earth -> OpenStreet Map
Chrome OS -> Lubuntu or Peppermint OS

[bob3160]

You obviously have a problem with Google. Your computer, your choice.
I prefer to enjoy my use of the computer and the internet with the understanding that privacy doesn't exist.
Going through hoops to become a little more obscure and less traceable just for the sake of normal internet use
isn't worth the trouble.
Again, to each their own. 

[polonus]

Para-Noid is right, winter4warm you are wrong, but 60% may think like you do. Alas the facts learn otherwise!

Read here: http://etherrag.blogspot.nl/2013/07/duck-duck-go-illusion-of-privacy.html
DuckDuckGo only allows you some shallow amount of privacy, but it does not protect you from government snoops
short of all that they may say/pretend, this is very true.....
Read here: http://www.cnet.com/news/how-the-u-s-forces-net-firms-to-cooperate-on-surveillance/

Internet companies are compelled  to install custom eavesdropping hardware on their networks, there is no way around that legal obligation.
This is true for many countries world wide, here I particularly mean USA, UK, Australia.
So what you gained by working DuckDuckGo in stead of Google is just giving you some"cosmetic gain",
your data still are sort of "owned".

As Para-Noid and bob3160 explained any existing privacy online to-day is an illusion.
People that think differently may have been sleeping under a stone.

polonus

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Internet companies are compelled  to install custom eavesdropping hardware on their networks, there is no way around that legal obligation.
This is true for many countries world wide, here I particularly mean USA, UK, Australia.
So what you gained by working DuckDuckGo in stead of Google is just giving you some"cosmetic gain",
your data still are sort of "owned".

That's why the most paranoid among us prefer to use services (a search engine in this case) outside of US jurisdiction. Startpage (by Ixquick) is one such exemple, they've decided to set up their servers in the Netherland instead. I totally agree that we need a decentralized internet, that would be very helpful against such abuses. (see: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-mission-to-decentralize-the-internet)

As for DuckDuckGo, while there is indeed some concerns with the fact that it is US-based, it is far from being a certainty if the NSA could practically compel DDG to install custom eavesdropping hardware to ''monitor'' user's searches. Gabriel Wagner is no fool and has consulted with several lawyers on the question, the consensus is that it would be unconstitutional to do so and therefore could be challenged if that were to occur, as it would force DDG to lie to it's customer, put them in trouble with the FTC and hurt their business.

Here's the response of Gabriel Wagner, CEO of DuckDuckGo:

Hi, this is Gabriel Weinberg, CEO and founder of DuckDuckGo. I do not believe we can be compelled to store or siphon off user data to the NSA or anyone else. All the existing US laws are about turning over existing business records and not about compelling you change your business practices. In our case such an order would further force us to lie to consumers, which would put us in trouble with the FTC and irreparably hurt our business.

We have not received any request like this, and do not expect to. We have spoken with many lawyers particularly skilled and experienced in this part of US and international law. If we were to receive such a request we believe as do these others it would be highly unconstitutional on many independent grounds, and there is plenty of legal precedent there. With CALEA in particular, search engines are exempt.

There are many additional legal and technical inaccuracies in this article and I will not address all of them in this comment. All our front-end servers are hosted on Amazon not Verizon, for example.

Link: http://etherrag.blogspot.nl/2013/07/duck-duck-go-illusion-of-privacy.html

[bob3160]

The topic of this thread pertains to accessing Startpage.
We are getting totally off-topic.