xquick: Search Engines Should Become Government Spies, Says EU Parliament

Ixquick and Startpage will fight "Big Brother" data retention clause in Declaration 29

BRUSSELS & NEW YORK & ZEIST, Netherlands --(BUSINESS WIRE)--A draconian proposal to retain all Internet search traffic, known as "Written
Declaration 29," was adopted by the European Parliament last week.
Framed as a measure to crack down on paedophiles, the controversial
Declaration calls on the EU to require that search engines store all
search traffic for up to two years for possible analysis by authorities.

Search engine Ixquick (www.ixquick.com), widely regarded as the world's most private search engine, has built a
strong privacy reputation by storing no search data on its users. The
company believes it has been singled out by the data retention proposal,
and it has vowed to strongly oppose the measure becoming law.

"Since Google, Yahoo, and Bing already retain users' search data, this proposal is clearly aimed at Ixquick and our English-language subsidiary
Startpage (www.startpage.com),"
said Robert Beens, CEO of Ixquick. "We have worked hard to create a
privacy-friendly search engine that embodies the spirit of EU Privacy
Protections, in line with the strict recommendations of the EU Article
29 Data Protection Working Party. This Declaration is evidence that the
left hand of the EU does not know what the right hand is doing."

Mr. Beens fears that if the measure becomes law, it will vastly undermine the privacy of over 500 million law-abiding EU citizens. Storing everyone's
search data, rather than restricting surveillance to known or suspected
offenders, would give the government access to a rich trove of
political, medical, professional, and personal data on virtually every
person in Europe. And critics say it will do little to stop child
pornography.

"Sex offenders exchange files through underground networks. They don't find this stuff through search engines," said Alex Hanff of Privacy
International, an advocacy group that is launching a campaign against
the measure. "I spent eight years helping law enforcement track down
online sex offenders and never once did we see a case where search
engine data was useful."

Ixquick will join the public campaign started by Privacy International to stop the provisions of Written Declaration 29 from becoming law.

"Privacy is a fundamental right and the basis of a free society. The phenomenal success of Ixquick and Startpage proves that people don't want to be
watched by their governments," said Mr. Beens. "Spying on law-abiding
citizens is not the way forward, and we will stand by our principles to
protect the public's ability to search in privacy."

Ixquick is an international, award-winning search engine with an industry-leading privacy policy. Ixquick has been awarded the EU Privacy
Seal by the independent certification authority Europrise. Further
information can be found at www.ixquick.com
and www.startpage.com.

For press inquiries, please contact:

EU Media Relations, Ixquick
Alex van Eesteren, +31-30-6971778
alex@ixquick.com

OR

U.S. Media Relations, Startpage
Dr. Katherine Albrecht
877-434-3100 (U.S. toll free)
+1-973-273-2125 (for International access)
kma@startpage.com