Bonum Certa Men Certa

Startpage is Not Denying Its Betrayal of Privacy, It is Just Being Evasive

If you cannot deny it, you will just change the subject



Summary: They can't call you a liar if you issue a non-denying 'denial'; the "Roll Safe Think About It" meme seems applicable here

THE series about Startpage has been somewhat of a Techrights 'exclusive' and it leads us to identifying other surveillance culprits that mask themselves as the complete opposite. We must call them out because they put at great risk those who wrongly assume anonymity etc. In some countries this can lead to assassination, death penalty etc. This is no laughing matter or a luxury or a "first world problem"; it's a profoundly critical issue and a matter we'll write more about.



"They sent me the same 'waffle'. They don't actually deny anything.""We received a very general response that did not address key questions," PrivacyTools wrote last week. There have since then been a number of comments. Startpage/System1 people are still trying to evade answering questions directly, fully and transparently.

"On the 15th of October," PrivacyTools said, "it was brought to our attention that Startpage.com was reportedly (partially?) taken over by a company called the Privacy One Group, which is in turn owned by a company called System1. We found this quite remarkable as the two companies seem to have conflicting business models. Startpage has been known for basing their advertisements on what their users enter in their search bar. System1 on the other hand, is a pay-per-click advertising company that "has developed a pre-targeting platform that identifies and unlocks consumer intent across channels including social, native, email, search, market research and lead generation rather than relying solely on what consumers enter into search boxes. We reached out to System1 CEO Ian Weingarten for an explanation. We received a very general response that did not address key questions."

As before. They sent me the same 'waffle'. They don't actually deny anything. All these 'prepared' and reused statements are similar to those we hear from Andrew Saxe Coburg Gotha in his BBC interview.

"Seemingly prompted by our ongoing concerns," PrivacyTools continued, "Startpage released a public letter addressed to us from their CEO, and hosted a Q&A on their Subreddit to try and explain the situation. While some of our questions were answered, we noted that the company seemed to be evasive, essentially restating information from a previously published blog post or posting the same response to different questions. People had to really dig to get answers and puzzle all information together, instead of getting a clearly explained and comprehensive answer from the start. Requests for clarification to some important questions went ignored."

The issue has meanwhile been mentioned by other sites. "Privacytools.io delists Startpage from its list of privacy tools and services," said one such site. "Startpage had been taken over by Privacy One Group, which itself is owned by System1. System1 is a targeted advertising company with a business model that seemed—to many—to be in conflict with Startpage’s own privacy-centric model."

Notice what Dan Arel wrote in the comments: "You raise some of the best points I have heard about this statement by them. It’s amazing how they somehow manages to leave us with more questions, not fewer."

One has to conclude that they have no potent response/clarification/rebuttal/defense. Among the arguments: "If we know that System1 has a “majority ownership of Startpage” — a legal definition meaning more than 50% — do the specific percentages still matter?"

The proportion must be rather high; if it wasn't, they'd just say what it is (openly).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part V
By Dr. Andy Farnell
Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision (to Fake Revenue Growth by Buying Revenue) Was a Failure
Of course the mass layoffs at Microsoft aren't just a Microsoft thing
Stagnant, Shrinking Businesses and "IBM's Corporate Culture Since the Late 1980s... Over 35 Years."
Recently, IBM was using share price as a talking point, insisting the company was doing OK while tens of thousands were being laid off
SCO's Darl McBride Dead at Age 64
There's hardly any information about it, except we know he reached bankruptcy and 3 years later he died at a relatively young age
 
Facebook's Debt Has Soared to All-Time High of Nearly 50 Billion Dollars
But the corporate media pretends all is well (while mass layoffs continue and slop takes over the social control media)
Geminispace Makes It Past 4,200 Capsules on November 1st
At last!
Links 01/11/2024: Election Interferences by X/Twitter/Musk, Strava as Espionage Tool
Links for the day
The October 2024 Web Server Survey Shows a Further Collapse for Microsoft in the Servers Market
Microsoft experienced the next largest loss of 699,464 sites (-3.45%)
Gemini Links 01/11/2024: TLS Sucks, twytere.com Announced
Links for the day
Links 01/11/2024: Few Things Are Cheaper Than This Antenna and "Nothing Lasts Forever"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 31, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, October 31, 2024
R.T.O. is Another Name (or Acronym) for Voluntary Layoffs
Amazon is trying to get many workers to leave on their own
Links 01/11/2024: World News, Political Catchup
Links for the day
[Meme] Probably the Worst Possible Time to Get Information From Social Control Media
Musk does not want to prevent disinformation from spreading and the same is true for Facebook and TikTok; they have their own interests
Update on Litigation Against the European Patent Office (EPO) at the ILO Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT)
Rewards and compensation for staff have long fallen, resulting in many experienced colleagues leaving and causing further declines in quality and compliance
Gemini Links 31/10/2024: NNCP, Declutter the Web, Cost of Community
Links for the day
Links 31/10/2024: Supermicro Plummets 33%, Block and Dropbox Mass Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 31/10/2024: Environmental Anxiety, Profound Changes in Hardware Market
Links for the day
Links 30/10/2024: TSMC Concerns and North Koreans in Ukraine War
Links for the day
Facebook is for Zombies
Social control media is for fools
Microsoft Now Has $235,290,000,000 in Liabilities, They Grow Over Time in Spite of Mass Layoffs (So Expect More Layoffs)
expect more mass layoffs
Links 31/10/2024: DST Woes, War Updates, Amazon RTO Backlash
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/10/2024: Attention Economy and Gemlogs
Links for the day
Happy Halloween
October is nearly over
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 30, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 30, 2024
For the Record: Linux is Controlled by the United States of America
"This is going to make many question the openness and inclusivity of the work done by Linux Foundation"
Microsoft: XBox Hardware Revenues Down About 30% (Ignore the Buzzwords and Activision Activity Dressed Up as "XBox")
For context, in a previous quarter XBox hardware sales were down by about 50%
Cooking the Books With "Cloud" And "AI" Was Not Enough to Fool Microsoft Investors
"Microsoft Shares Drop on Disappointing Azure Growth Forecast"
[Meme] It Irritates Them That FSF Still Promotes Software Freedom
"An open letter in support of Richard M. Stallman"
At the End, Facts Typically Win, Liars Walk Away
very recent Stallman talk
Gemini Links 30/10/2024: Mind-Seeing and Heart-Knowing, Views on Perspective
Links for the day
IBM Has Collapsed This Past Week, thelayoff.com Deletes Rumours of Mass Layoffs in the United States
Visa is having a crisis right now
Links 30/10/2024: Extreme Surveillance in Schools, More Openwashing by OSI
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/10/2024: Death Notes, Mindfulness, and More
Links for the day
The Role of Publishers on the World Wide Web (and Gemini Protocol, Among Other Digital Transmission Protocols)
social control media is a cesspool that spreads disinformation and hate, in turn fuelling wars and conflict
More Than a Week Has Passed, DeVault Has Declined to Deny Serious Accusations Against Him
The whole "Stallman Report" thing backfired very spectacularly
IBM's Silent Mass Layoffs to Last Another Month, Rumour That Another Wave is Happening Right Now
A special Halloween for some families
W3Schools Says "Statistics Are Important Information", But Abandons Them After More Than 20 Years
No update for over half a year
Preserving Information
Those who seek destruction of information tend to be evil people, whose evildoing they strive to delete
Volkswagen Cheated Us and Created Cars We Didn't Ask For
just like "smartphones", they don't last very long and they diminish in value very fast
"All Systems Operational"
We can now devote more time to writing articles and maybe some time soon making more videos
[Meme] Good Books Don't Give You "Likes"
But they give you information
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 29, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 29, 2024
[Meme] Microsoft's CoC Downtime
"Your system is down"
Manchester United 'Sacks' Microsoft?
United's relationship with Microsoft hasn't (or won't) last long
[Meme] 16 Years to Hire a Black Person (in the US)
After having close to 1,000 employees
StatCounter's Shortcomings and More
So while GNU/Linux and Android continue to grow at Windows' expense there will be other operating systems growing. They're not controlled by GAFAM (e.g. Google, Apple, Microsoft).