[tor-bugs] #4902 [Firefox Patch Issues]: Change the default search engine in TBB

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#4902: Change the default search engine in TBB
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 Reporter:  phobos         |          Owner:  mikeperry
     Type:  enhancement    |         Status:  closed
 Priority:  Medium         |      Milestone:  TorBrowserBundle 2.3.x-stable
Component:  Firefox Patch  |        Version:
  Issues                   |
 Severity:  Blocker        |     Resolution:  worksforme
 Keywords:                 |  Actual Points:  1
  MikePerry201204          |
Parent ID:                 |         Points:  1
 Reviewer:                 |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by cypherpunks):

 Replying to [comment:39 heyjoe]:
 > > Correlate isn't that simple.
 >
 > I am not saying that it is simple per se but the more data there is, the
 easier it becomes to correlate it. Though I am unaware of starpage's
 infrastructure and relations, still we are all aware that Amazon is not
 our friend. Ideally we would have a decentralized search but AFAIK such is
 not available ATM.
 > > I don't see the gains from such a complex maneuver to be honest.
 >
 > Which is a complex maneuver?
 The complex maneuver of engineering a correlation mechanism that
 identifies unique users with their searches with low false positives and
 with only timing (and no fingerprinting) and content as input. It's
 probably impossible.

 > Setting another default search engine is easy. Though I am not familiar
 with any legal factors that may be preventing this (as in an expressed
 disagreement by Startpage).
 It's not easy when there are no alternatives (searx will get overwhelmed
 and their infrastructure won't be able to handle the load, bing, qwant,
 baidu and yahoo searches are really poor quality wise). It's not a legal
 problem, Startpage puts up captchas to Tor users when it was enabled as
 default not so long ago IIRC. (Can't find the relevant comments.)

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4902#comment:40>
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