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Google search results and your privacy

Privacy and your data 2 min read Beginner Updated

On this page
  1. Where Google results appear
  2. What Google receives
  3. Why you cannot switch this category off
  4. Protect yourself while you use them
  5. Common questions

Some of the results on a 4Search page are hosted by Google. They are the web results you see on the Web tab and beside the news results. Loading them sends your search to Google, which is why the privacy panel lists them as their own category, Google search results.

#Where Google results appear

Google-hosted web results load on the results pages of the All, Web, News, Websites and Shopping tabs, when you have searched for something. They are not part of the Images, Videos, Finance, Politics, Predictions, Weather or Maps pages, or of AI Mode.

A box above them may tell you what is happening: that the results are loading, that they are waiting for a human check, or that they could not load. See Google web results are blank or will not load.

#What Google receives

According to the panel, Google receives the search request and technical connection data under its own privacy terms. According to the Privacy Policy, that means the query, the page address, your IP address, browser information and related connection data needed to return the results.

Google may also use its own cookies or similar technologies when its results load. Those are governed by Google, as the Cookie Policy says.

#Why you cannot switch this category off

Google search results is marked Always active. The policies treat Google-hosted results as an essential part of the search service, so rejecting optional categories does not turn them off. Refusing the optional categories does not hide 4Search's own results either.

What you control is separate: AI-assisted answers, Saved preferences and advertising are optional, and Google advertising is a different category from Google search results. See Your privacy choices.

#Protect yourself while you use them

  • Read Google's own privacy terms for what it does with the information it receives.
  • Use Global Privacy Control or the panel to keep advertising off.
  • If a content blocker stops Google's results from loading, that is your browser's choice. The page tells you the results could not load and suggests checking your content blocker.

#Common questions

Does Google see everything I search on 4Search?

Google receives your search on the pages that load Google-hosted results, as described above. The Images, Videos, Finance, Politics, Predictions, Weather and Maps pages do not load them.

Does rejecting cookies stop Google results?

No. Google search results stay active when you reject the optional categories.

Read next

Privacy and your data Your privacy choices The banner, the privacy panel, the shield button and the Your Privacy Choices page: what each category does and how to change your mind at any time. Privacy and your data What 4Search collects, and what it does not A plain-words walk through what the site records when you search, use a form or open a page, how long records are kept, and what the policy says it does not do. Troubleshooting Google web results are blank or will not load What the messages in the Google results area mean, and the fixes: wait a moment, stop a content blocker, finish the human check or change your words. Searching Searching on 4Search How a search is answered, what each tab is for, and where to find the controls that narrow and explain your results.