this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
68 points (73.0% liked)

Privacy

31675 readers
261 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Swedish author and famous pro-Ukraine blogger Lars Wilderäng (Cornucopia) reports today that the Swedish security expert Karl Emil Nikka has revealed that Kagi is using the Kremlin propaganda tool Yandex as a backend for searches.

Wilderäng speculates this might mean search terms are leaking to Russia, while others worry about how Kremlin thus can get their talking points into western search results.

Security expert Karl Emil Nikka tells us that the search engine Kagi, popular among tech geeks, uses Russian Yandex, which was introduced after the full-scale invasion. This, of course, gives Russia the opportunity to look at what is searched for via Kagi.

Link (in Swedish), see 11:22 update: https://cornucopia.se/2024/10/uppdateras-ryssland-medger-bruk-av-c-stridsmedel-mot-ukraina-rysk-pilot-som-mordade-68-ukrainare-ihjalslagen-med-hammare-bland-de-allra-storsta-ryska-forlusterna-under-kriget-igar/

top 47 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 minutes ago

Similar controversy when Kagi added Brave search.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 days ago

It’s not a fucking reveal, Kagi tells you exactly what engines they include in their results.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

they are also worki g with the us 🙄

[–] [email protected] 107 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I expected something more shocking when I read "working with Russia".

Kagi uses multiple search backends, and of course it needs to forward search terms to these backends. These backends probably can't trace the searches back to the individual Kagi user though, but Yandex could still analyze search trends for example.

What's worse is that - unless they use Yandex' API for free - customers indirectly (and likely unknowingly) support a Russian company with their paid Kagi subscription.

Kagi should at the very least release a statement about this claim.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I am surpised yandex aint sanctioned tbh

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

probably because us government employees use its reverse image search for how good it is

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

Aside from reverse image search Yandex is wonderful for obscure things like software reverse engineering.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Google nuked that feature... Hmmm

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Same, but it's great for finding things US companies want taken down

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago

As much as i hate russia and their bullshit, you aint wrong.

A shrewd internet enjoyer could be using it as a cross reference to check their beloved megacorps offering🐸

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You know what? DuckDuckGo uses Yahoo results, they must be working with the US government! What a nonesense.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yandex is a really good search engine 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Many of Yandex’s employees resigned in protest, accusing the company of serving as a tool of Kremlin propaganda and actively concealing information about the war.

https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/publications/zois-spotlight/the-sad-fate-of-yandex-from-independent-tech-startup-to-kremlin-propaganda-tool

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Go search palestine or ukraine on google news and tell me if you see unbiased news 😉

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

Every search engine ever is biased in the results it will show you.

You have to learn the biases and not fall prey to them.

If you think you're using an unbiased source then all you've done is failed to recognize them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Hmmm keeping an eye on this thank you.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

oof

And I was just thinking about getting a subscription.

Time to selfhost SearXNG instead.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (2 children)

SearXNG also supports Yandex as one of the many search-engine backend.

[feat] engine: implementation of yandex (web, images) #3733

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Can't you just not enable the Yandex backend if you're selfhosting searx?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You can disable any backend on SearXNG, Stract, 4get or some other self-hosted FOSS alternative. However, for Kagi, there's this feature called lenses, which probably works in the same way as Stract's Optics - not sure if it allows blocking of a particular search-engine service.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Gotcha, that sounds like searx is a good option then. At first I thought you were giving a reason why searx isn't a suitable alternative as the gp comment is downvoted a bunch.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Note that Yandex has an aggressive captcha, so it doesn't really work with SearXNG in its current state. Tested a couple weeks ago.