Any decent search engine needs some way to make money. Secure search engines are handicapped a bit in this regard, since they can't sell your personal information or use it to target ads like the big boys do. There are three ways primary ways that secure search engines make money: * Contextual ads * Affiliate programs * Donations Contextual ads In the early days of the internet, search engines placed contextual ads on their pages. These ads were based on the search terms you entered. This was a great approach since it didn't violate your privacy in any way. You were already searching for “how to weigh a duck” or somesuch, so displaying ads related to scales or ducks made them relevant without needing to know anything else about you. Over time, search engines like Google moved to make their ads more effective by using additional data about you, your searches, and any other information they could gather. That's why today when you use a search engine like Google, you might be trying to figure out how much your duck weighs, while Google serves ads about the Caribbean resort you and your spouse were discussing last night while within earshot of a Google Nest device. Ads that don't use personal information about you are probably not as effective as those that do, but they don't involve personal data security violations either. Some secure search engines go one step further, sharing a portion of your IP address with whoever provides the ads. The portion they provide is enough to specify your general location in the world, but not enough to uniquely identify you. This allows them to serve ads that are relevant for both your search and your general location. Affiliate programs Many search engines (secure or otherwise) make money by participating in affiliate programs. In an affiliate program, the search engine gets paid a small commission for referring potential customers to a participating company. Affiliate programs are a win all around. The search engine gets paid for helping you find the product you want. The vendor pays out a little money to get a customer that they might not have otherwise. And you get directed to someone who is selling what you want to buy. You never pay any extra in this customer acquisition method; the company simply takes a slightly smaller profit in return for getting the sale through the affiliate program. DuckDuckGo earns money through affiliate programs and related “online shopping” options that may appear above your search results. Qwant is another search engine that uses the “online shopping” approach to make money. Donations A third way that secure search engines make money is through donations. Anyone who appreciates the work being done by the search engine is welcome to donate some money to help keep them in business. Several secure search engines rely on donations to help make ends meet. Two search engines from our list that accept donations are Swisscows and metaGer.