privacy on S Anand

SearXNG and Vane

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:40:25 +0530

While exploring resonant computing tools, I discovered SearXNG, a self-hostable metasearch engine, which aggregates results from multiple search engines.

It lets you search using APIs without needing to buy API keys and without being tracked. Pretty useful for research, people discovery, etc. when combined with LLMs.

Setting it up for API use seems easy (thought Gemini got it wrong twice):

cat <<EOF > settings.yml
use_default_settings: true
server:
  secret_key: "local_dummy_secret_key_987654321"
search:
  formats:
    - html
    - json
EOF

docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  --name searxng \
  -v "$(pwd)/settings.yml:/etc/searxng/settings.yml" \
  -e "SEARXNG_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/" \
  -e "SEARXNG_SERVER_LIMITER=false" \
  searxng/searxng

Now, you can run:

curl -s "http://localhost:8080/search?q=best+sci-fi+books&format=json"

… which returns a JSON like this:

{
  "query": "best sci-fi books",
  "number_of_results": 0,
  "results": [
    {
      "template": "default.html",
      "url": "https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/19341.Best_Science_Fiction",
      "title": "Best Science Fiction (3733 books) - Goodreads",
      "content": "Other SF Lists of Note: ...",
      "publishedDate": null,
      "thumbnail": "https://imgs.search.brave.com/...",
      "engine": "brave",
      "parsed_url": ["https", "www.goodreads.com", "/list/show/19341.Best_Science_Fiction", "", "", ""],
      "img_src": "https://imgs.search.brave.com/...",
      "priority": "",
      "engines": ["startpage", "duckduckgo", "brave"],
      "positions": [2, 1, 1],
      "score": 7.5,
      "category": "general",
    },
    /// ...
  ],
  "suggestions": [
    "top 10 best sci-fi books of all time",
    // ...
  ],
  "unresponsive_engines": [
    ["google", "access denied"],
    ["wikidata", "timeout"],
  ],
}

There are many public SearXNG instances. Google seems to be blocked on many of these, but Brave, DuckDuckGo, and others seem to work fine.

That leads me to Vane which is a self-hostable Perplexity clone! A hosted version is available at Perplexica.io.

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -v vane-data:/home/vane/data --name vane itzcrazykns1337/vane:latest

I tried a few questions and compared with Perplexity / Gemini using GPT-5 nano – a really cheap model.

🟢 It solves multi-hop queries. Which company acquired the data visualization firm Gramener in late 2023, and what is the current public stock ticker and market capitalization of that acquiring company?
- A: The data-visualization firm Gramener was acquired in November 2023 by Straive. Straive is a private company owned by BPEA EQT, part of the EQT group. Because Straive is privately held, it does not have a public stock ticker, and its market capitalization is not publicly disclosed.
🟢 It catches wrong questions. Summarize the findings of the April 2025 paper ‘Agile Methodologies in High-Latency LLM Architectures’ by Dr. Aris Thorne.
- A: Hmm, sorry I could not find any relevant information on this topic. Would you like me to search again or ask something else?
🔴 It doesn’t get the latest data. Summarize the latest blog post on my website s-anand.net.
- A: I can do that. To ensure accuracy, I’ll need to fetch the latest post from s-anand.net and summarize it with key takeaways and insights. Would you like me to fetch the latest post directly from the site now, or you provide the post URL or paste the content here?
- Q: Fetch the latest post directly and give me a 1 para summary
- A: The latest post on s-anand.net is “Education Blog embeddings map,” published on Tue, 17 Mar 2026…

Though Vane got the last question wrong, Perplexity and Gemini got it wrong as well! So I guess it’s a good, comparable alternative.

Gemini Enterprise Business

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:35:09 +0800

I got an email from Google Cloud on my work account “excited to introduce you to Gemini Enterprise”.

Once I signed up, it said, “you have 30 days to try Gemini Enterprise – Business edition at no cost.” After that, it costs US $21/user/month, which I can subscribe to here.

The main differences from Gemini Pro (consumer accounts) seem to be:

Data Privacy. Google won’t read or use your data to train. (In Pro, you need to turn it off explicitly. Here, it’s the default.)
Admin Controls. Admins can turn off connectors, manage users, retention policies, etc.
Copyright Indemnification. If AI infringes copyright and you get sued, Google will find the case.

But if you’re using Gemini via your Google Workspace account (i.e. your work account already has Pro subscription), then it makes no difference - it’s all the same.

So I have no clue why Google’s mailed me to buy the same product I already have.

Google Browser Sync

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Using the Google Browser Sync extension for Firefox, you can access your bookmarks, tabs, history, saved passwords and cookies from any machine. You can browse from office, go back home, and continue browsing where you left off. Gina Trapani of Lifehacker says Google Browser Sync is not a privacy risk after all.

Finding subversives using Amazon wishlists

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Finding subversives using Amazon wishlists.

RFID and GPS

Thu, 17 Feb 2005 12:00:00 +0000

It’s incredible what RFID and GPS are being used to track:

What’s even more interesting (scary?) is when it’s used to track

Comments

S Anand 17 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: I use a domain hosting service that uses hidden frames to point to my Geocities site. Know of any better (cheaper) ones?
TOPFRAME 17 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: why do you have to keep the URL at “http://www.s-anand.net” when I follow a link from your page? It’s very irritating actually.

Gmail is not bad

Tue, 20 Apr 2004 12:00:00 +0000

O’Reilly on why Gmail is not bad.

Gmail is bad

Tue, 06 Apr 2004 12:00:00 +0000

A different perspective on Google mail.

Netizens do not value privacy all that much

Mon, 30 Sep 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Forbes: netizens don’t value privacy all that much. The average surfer that I meet does not know about privacy, and does not worry too much when explained either.

How to disappear

Thu, 27 Jun 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Wired tells you how to disappear. Online and offline.

Steal data by recording LED lights

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Who’d have thought that you could steal data by recording LED lights!

Spyware

Mon, 11 Feb 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Spyware.

Early hits of Sep 11 attack

Tue, 25 Sep 2001 12:00:00 +0000

Unfortunate, but among the early hits of the attack are privacy and free speech.

PC World best of the Web

Sat, 07 Jul 2001 12:00:00 +0000

PC World’s Best of the Web uncovers gems like Safeweb (like Anomymizer.com but free), MegaPixel (digital cameras), Betanews, ArtistDirect (music search) and Multimedia Library.

Hacking is unavoidable

Mon, 02 Apr 2001 12:00:00 +0000

After seeing how costly it is to detect hacking, and the fact that anything you say can be logged against you, one wonders if being online is worth it. If you’ve got a permanent Internet connection, keep it switched off.