In the german computer journal Computerbild 6/2018 p. 38/30 contains an article entitled “search without snooping”. The opening credits say: “Google’s search engine is successful because it delivers top results. But it also spys on its users comprehensively. Are there any viable alternatives?” The benchmark of an alternative search engine is then “data and privacy protection” rather than the search results (I will deal with this criterion separately).
In the german computer journal CHIP 4/2018 “Alternative Search Queries” it says: “A glance at the Google data protection statement peppered with subjunctives is enough to find out that Google not only stores search queries and IP addresses, but also personalises the data, uses it for advertising purposes and even shares it with third parties”.
More articles on the web
Search engines without collecting mania. These are the 5 best Google alternatives, Anonymous search engines: searches without snoopers or similar apply the same standard “privacy”.

So the question is: What does Google store and what does data protection mean?

Let’s just search with a PC and laptop:
1) You sign in to Google and get a digital workstation that you can use for various functions. The purpose of storage is the effective and cooperative use of this digital workplace with the various Google applications. If you do not use it, the registration does not make sense.
You can change settings and https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity a chronological list of all activities you have performed through Google. It contains web searches, image searches, Google News views and more, neatly sorted by date and time. If you want, you can delete them regularly. There is also a tool from Google https://myaccount.google.com/intro/privacycheckup, which simplifies the settings.
If you have registered, the additional use of another search engine will not help you.
2. you do not sign in to Google.
Then it is saved:
– The country code
– The IP address (stored for 9 months)
– The language
– The search query
– The clicks on the search results
– Number of results
The IP address could be critical, which could possibly lead to an identification of the connection. The host operator, via which you access the Internet, generally stores the traffic data for 6 months for invoicing purposes. There is currently no data retention system in Germany that stores your IP address on a long-term basis.
Internet pages themselves can store various data: Name of the requested file, date and time of retrieval, transferred data volume, browser type and version number and the IP address of the requesting computer (which is then also transmitted to Google via Google Analytics), incoming and outgoing pages, partly the location of the browser. How long they store the data is usually unclear. In addition, the pages and their advertisements place cookies on your PC.
Can an “alternative search engine” that does not store an IP address guarantee “data protection”? This is an illusion. The scale by which “alternative” search engines are recommended is therefore not sufficient.