Relationships Talk

The online world is a veritable cave of wonders with a search engine genie granting you as many wishes as you want. Just say the word, and you have access to free communities, free dating, free information, and free entertainment. But that phenomenal cosmic power comes at a price — and the price is you.

While you gather up treasures, some websites quietly collect your personal data and then sell it to online marketing companies and other shady corporate entities. Sometimes these websites disclose where their user information goes, and sometimes they don’t.

Privacy has become a major issue in the online dating scene. Singles put their personal lives on the line when they visit a dating site or solicit dating advice, and many don’t want follow-up ads to embarrass them by broadcasting their sexual orientation, STD status, or other sensitive details. Most major search engines make money by putting their customers’ search history on the auction block, but Startpage.com is on a mission to change the status quo and keep its users safe from online snoopers.

Since its launch in 2006, Startpage has made a name for itself as one of the world’s most private search engines. The website doesn’t store IP addresses or even record search histories. Even if law enforcement were to issue a warrant for its user searches, Startpage wouldn’t have any data to disclose.

Thanks to its one-of-a-kind privacy features, Startpage ensures that consumers don’t have to worry about their information being released or shared with anyone. As a result, Startpage can offer daters a safe space where they can ask sensitive questions about their health, safety, and sexuality.

Startpage is respectful of the individual’s right to privacy and gives users more control over their personal data. Whether an individual is looking for rape survivor support groups or exploring LGBTQ+ dating sites, they deserve the right to keep that information to themselves.

“Daters will really appreciate Startpage.com’s privacy for some of the things they need answers for every day,” said Liz McIntyre, a consumer privacy expert with Startpage. “Being able to find the answers in privacy offers peace of mind at a time when everything you do and see online is typically documented.”

The Redesign Addresses the Concerns of Modern Users

Startpage uses Google’s search results to deliver the highest quality information, but it removes all trackers, cookies, and logs. That means online companies can’t follow users after they leave the website. Advertisers can’t eavesdrop on their searches. Web users can search in peace, safe in the knowledge that whatever they’re typing isn’t being recorded, monitored, and cataloged for future use.

In the last year, Startpage’s search engine underwent a major redesign to change its look and update its features. The search engine now offers new privacy tools to address issues the modern user faces.

The Anonymous View feature has turned heads by taking proactive steps to shield user information even after the user has left Startpage.com. This feature enables users to visit websites anonymously. The Anonymous View button appears next to every website in the search results, and clicking it stops the site from seeing who or where they are as they browse. The website sees only Startpage.com, not users, so it can’t follow them once they leave its domain.

Anonymous View empowers users to browse the internet without disclosing their private details.

Users can stay hidden while surfing the web thanks to Startpage’s forward-thinking updates. No other search engine goes to such lengths to protect user privacy across the internet.

“Let’s say you want to search for advice on ED medications, body odor, or any number of other highly personal topics that you don’t want to end up in a digital profile,” Liz said. “You go to Startpage.com and get Google search results in privacy. Then you can also visit the websites you find in privacy, too, by clicking on the optional Anonymous View proxy links.”

Anonymous View is just one of the unique benefits available on Startpage.com. If you’re tired of big-data companies watching your every move, you can make Startpage.com your default search engine and start browsing under the radar.

Leading the Movement to Protect Personal Data

The internet can be a powerful force for good in everyday lives. In this opportunist paradise, anyone can build a community, start a business, or find a date online. But, on the flip side, it can also lead unsuspecting folks into trouble. Think of all the victims of Nigerian prince scams or online identity theft.

Some websites expect users to be responsible for their own safety, but others, like the Startpage team, have taken on the responsibility of standing up for consumer interests and advocating for the right to privacy.

Startpage puts your digital identity in yours hands.

Startpage prioritizes consumers over corporations and has taken action to stop the unethical data mining that can turn private information into public knowledge.

“Privacy is a pocketbook issue,” Liz said. “Marketers are tracking people in order to determine their purchasing power and even how much they might be persuaded to pay for products and services.”

This issue may not get a lot of attention in the mainstream media, but differential pricing impacts budgets of online shoppers and should be a top concern for everyone. Nowadays a person’s digital footprint can determine whether they get a loan or how much they pay for car insurance.

Since the company’s founding in 1998, the Startpage team has endeavored to erase that footprint and keep its users from being analyzed, tracked, and judged by third-party websites. This search engine currently sees over 2 billion searches per year and has stayed competitive with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other big-name companies by pioneering privacy features that support anonymous search and browsing.

“Startpage.com is helping to make the internet a more private place where people can research information without worrying about unknown third parties documenting search terms or making judgments about their lives,” Liz said. “We all need space to learn and develop without fear of judgment or reprisal.”

Startpage.com Champions Online Privacy & Security

The internet is a dazzling digital place where people engage in an open dialogue on just about everything in existence Countless websites tantalize users with free information available at a moment’s notice. Cat videos, Disney memes, dating sites, oh my! It’s easy to get caught up in your newsfeed and forget its hidden costs.

Many consumers have become accustomed to the internet’s trade-offs. As in, “I want to know where this restaurant is, so I let Google know where I am.” In most cases, people make these exchanges without thinking twice, but sometimes you have to draw the line and tell the internet’s lurkers to stop following you everywhere.

Startpage offers a trustworthy solution for active daters looking for a little discretion and privacy on the web. This innovative and fast-growing search engine has changed the way people browse the internet and made the online world a more consumer-friendly place. Looking to the future, users can expect Startpage to continue dreaming up new ways to protect user privacy across the web.

“Startpage.com believes privacy is a fundamental human right and is necessary for a free society,” Liz said. “All the company’s products and services are developed with this in mind.”

When she was 33, Catherine Gray realised that the longest time she had spent out of a relationship since she was 20 was six months. She was consumed by wanting to find love. If a man she’d been on a few dates with didn’t reply to her immediately, panic would set in. 

“You think your life is over if somebody you’ve had a few jokes with doesn’t want to see you again. It’s this strange competitiveness where you don’t actually want the thing you are winning.”

But it wasn’t until she gave up alcohol in 2013 that she realised she was addicted to dating. Gray’s first book, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, struck a chord, topping bestseller lists. After stopping drinking, she ignored  advice to have a year off dating, going headlong into a new relationship. “It ended after six months and I was crushed,” she says now, aged 38. “I realised that if I was desperately sad at the thought of being alone, that was something I needed to work through. So I took the year off, not dating anyone or so much as holding hands. It was almost like having a second sobriety.” 

She adds: “When you stop one thing, it’s common for another to raise its head. People compare it to the game whack-a-mole because it’s like, ‘Oh, there’s another one’.” 

Her second book, The Unexpected Joy of Being Single, came out this month, as pop star Ariana Grande announced that she plans to be single for ever. In the book, Gray deftly dismantles the social pressure around single women. She realised that a lot of her unease about being single actually came from other people and their assumptions.

“At 32, relatives went from asking, ‘How’s your love life?’” — she puts on a cheery voice then turns concerned — “to, ‘What is going on with your love life, have you sorted it out? Please say you are getting married.’ It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy, you start to feel it just because people are treating you with concern, like you’re lacking something. It’s OK to be sad about being single but don’t let it overtake your life. Telling someone they will end up alone has been found to lower their IQ.”

Dating apps didn’t help. “They are hugely addictive and designed to be like that, set up like computer games that you want to win. You get a match but then never message because it’s more about collecting matches than a human connection.” She was “shocked” to discover that more than half the population aged 25 to 44 are single. “There is this sense that time is running out but the idea of a fertility cliff is nowhere near as drastic as I had believed.”

The often-cited statistic that one in three women aged 35 to 39 will not get pregnant after a year of trying is actually from a study of French births between 1670 and 1830. Now there is only a six per cent drop between 35 and 40.

Gray’s parents divorced when she was a child but compounded the pressure on her to find a relationship. “When I turned 33 my father started calling me a spinster and told me that my marriage fund was now an egg-freezing fund. My mother is a raging love addict. I used to be like that because I saw single people as something which needed to be fixed; they were incomplete. She has kind of stopped that since I’ve written the book.”

Being single meant taking responsibility. “There’s a chapter in the book called Colour Yourself in Completely, about doing all the things that you’ve been putting off until you meet an imaginary future person who doesn’t even exist. Since giving up dating for a year my career has got a lot better. I’ve published three books. I’ve started to think about things such as saving for a deposit and I’m learning to drive. I was so used to having a boyfriend and using them as an ATM for compliments and a mood lift, so I had to do that for myself.”

When the year was up, a friend forced her to go on a date. “I did a backwards slide. Dating is harder than being single and not dating. It’s when you’re dating again that you slip back into the old habits of obsessively checking apps.

“I downloaded Tinder and went out with this guy who was extraordinarily good-looking. That blinded me to the fact he was also extraordinarily arrogant. He was so hot I couldn’t see what was going on. As soon as we slept together he dropped me. I was gutted and didn’t want to date again.”

She calls her approach now  “moderate dating”, adding: “I love living alone.” she pauses. “But then again I like sex and company. Maybe I’ll meet someone but now I won’t feel incomplete if I don’t.”

The Unexpected Joy of Being Single (Octopus Publishing Group, £9.99) is out now.

The feud between Megan Barton Hanson and Dancing On Ice professional skater Vanessa Bauer shows no signs of slowing down.

Love Island star Wes Nelson is seemingly caught in the middle, however, it appears to be only his girlfriend who is firing shots with Vanessa keeping a dignified silence.

While some fans have blasted Megan as insecure and jealous for her actions, others have defended her.

OK! online spoke exclusively to Celebs Go Dating love guru Anna Williamson about what Megan’s actions mean for her relationship with Wes.

Mind Coach and TV Presenter Anna said: “It’s an interesting way to respond to the news that Wes’s skating partner has broken up with her boyfriend.

“This is very clearly a public ‘staking her claim’ on her man. 

“Megan’s social media comment was territorial and clearly showed a natural insecurity about their close skating relationship.

“My advice would be that Wes needs to be the instigator in ensuring that both his girlfriend and pro partner are introduced and equally, feel comfortable with the situation and everyone’s ‘roles’.

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“Megan’s reaction implies this hasn’t happened – communication is 100% necessary in this situation.’’

Megan claims to not be fault and told The Sun: “I want her to reach out to me. I’ve had no communication with her for the past three months.

“I’m not jealous; it is just a lack of respect. I was pushed over the edge.”

She added: “Girl to girl, if you’re spending that much time with someone’s boyfriend you would reach out to them and say ‘hi,’ you would introduce yourself.

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