Google personalizes search results even when you’re logged out, new study finds

The amount of personalization inherent in any one of Google’s many massive software products runs deep, based on everything from your search history to your location to every single search link you might have clicked. And avoiding that personalization seems to have become more difficult over the years. According to a new study conducted by Google competitor DuckDuckGo, it does not seem possible to avoid personalization when using Google Search, even by logging out of your Google account and using the private browsing “incognito” mode.

DuckDuckGo conducted the study in June of this year, at the height of the US midterm election season. It did so with the ostensible goal of confirming whether Google’s search results exacerbate idealogical...

Continue reading…