Hopefully your kids aren't sharing inappropriately on social media. You're all over that, right? But are they sharing inappropriately in their browser? I can almost guarantee you they are. If your child has a mobile device or even uses a desktop browser, everything they search for is shared with Google. Google takes this info and socks it away to profile your child and "bubble" their searches in the future.
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't want Google putting my kids' searches in their "permanent record". Unlike, Google's Eric Schmidt, I don't think my kid should have to change their name to get a clean slate at the age of 18.
"I propose that at the age of 18, you should, just as a policy, change your name," Schmidt said, with a smile. "Then you can say, 'That really wasn't me; I really didn't do that!'" - Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google
Fortunately, there is an easy fix for all this. Switch your search engine to DuckDuckGo. Now, don't be fooled by the name. DuckDuckGo is a serious search engine. It's not a "kiddy" search engine. It does everything Google does - except invade your privacy.
Switching to DuckDuckGo on the desktop is easy enough. However, until recently, it was nearly impossible for mobile devices. Thanks to Apple's new iOS 8 release, we can finally have a default search engine that is more inline with Apple's ethos that our privacy is not up for grabs.
To switch to DuckDuckGo, start at the Settings App. Scroll down to "Safari". Tap "Search Engine", and then choose "DuckDuckGo". That's it. Now, when your kids use Safari to search for something on the internet, they won't be broadcasting their most intimate questions to Google.
