We do not collect any "personal information"
unless information is collected, cannot be stolen, demanded, leaked or abused. Protecting your personal data is the best way to protect your online privacy.
How we define "Personal Data"
Our definition of personal data is based on EU privacy laws and regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These are widely considered to be the most powerful privacy protections in the world. We view any information about you or your behavior that can be attributed to you as personal data.
Information we do not collect
so let's be completely clear:
we do not record your IP address
The only exception is to automatic search requests (robots) that submit queries to our servers more quickly than any normal person. When our software detects possible abuse, we record and block the infringing IP address in order to maintain our secure and free service.
We do not serve tracking or identification
cookies. These are "good" and "bad" cookies. Cookies are small pieces of data that are sent to your hard drive by websites you visit. "Bad" cookies have unique elements that can track all kinds of personal information. We do not serve any of these. The start page uses only one "good" cookie called "Preferences" to remember the search preferences you have selected. It's completely anonymous and has expired after not visiting spific for 90 days.
We do not record your search queries
When you search, your query is automatically extracted from unnecessary metadata including your IP address and other identifying information. We send the anonymous search query to a list of selected engines (such as Google, Yahoo !, Bing and more) and return the search results to you. We do not record your searches.
To prevent abuse such as high-volume robotic queries, we anonymously determine the frequency of popular search keywords as part of our anti-abuse measures, while maintaining your privacy.
How we implemented a truly anonymous analysis
We do measure the total traffic number and a few other statistics - absolutely anonymous. These statistics may include the number of times our service accessed a particular operating system, browser type, language, etc., but we know nothing about individual users.
How do we keep spific free without using "personal data"
Most online advertising today is customized, meaning that online advertising services track what you do online, turning you into a product with details about your preferences, in order to display customized ads. We do not do this in spific. No tracking. No profile!
Our search results pages may contain a small number of clearly marked "sponsored links", which generate revenue and cover our operating costs. These links are retrieved from platforms such as Google AdSense. In order to prevent click fraud, some of the information is not shared by a system, but because we never share personal information or information that can uniquely identify you, the ads we display are not linked to any single user.
It is a myth that search engines need your information to make decent money. spific shows non-custom ads. Sure, our ads are only a small part of what other search engine ads generate, but they pay for all of our bills.
What Happens to Your Data Beyond Searching a Home Page
After clicking on a search result, you leave our site and our privacy protection. This is true of sponsored links, search results, and other external links, unless you use our proprietary "anonymous view" feature - which is displayed next to search results. This is a great privacy tool that allows you to continue browsing in complete privacy.
We do not disclose or sell your contact information
When you contact us via email or through our support center, we will use your contact information to respond to you. We will not sell or share this information with anyone else.
How we respond to government requests for data
We can not ask for what we do not have. Any request will have to come from judicial authorities in The US. We will only comply if we are required by law. But it is unlikely that we will receive requests from governments to provide user data - simply because we do not have.
We will never have a voluntary monitoring program
Fortunately, we are in United States of America, where there are strong laws that protect your right to privacy. The US government cannot legally force service providers like spific to implement a sweeping espionage program.
spific complies with GDPR
We fully comply with the applicable EU privacy laws and regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These are widely considered to be the most powerful privacy protections in the world.