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Kagi search engine working with Russia (fedia.io)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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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/

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[–] 112 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

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.

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  • [+] 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    probably because U.S government employees use its reverse image search for how good it is

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    • [+] 43 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    • [+] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
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    [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yandex is a really good search engine 🤷‍♂️

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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

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    • [+] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
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    [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Similar controversy when Kagi added Brave search.

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    [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    Hmmm keeping an eye on this thank you.

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    [–] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    oof

    And I was just thinking about getting a subscription.

    Time to selfhost SearXNG instead.

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  • [+] 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

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

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    • [+] -49 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Ugh politics again. I hope the admins take this down very soon.

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  • [–] 44 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I have to admit - coming from a lemmy.ml user, this made me chuckle.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Lemmy.ml is known for terrible moderation but I chose it just because I was new and it was official. Now I'd probably choose something else.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It’s more about it being a Marxist Leninist instance lol

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  • [+] -27 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Mister/miss, I'm not even sure if Marxism is even allowed here. I think it's more about "we ban everyone who disagrees with our American political views".

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    “we ban everyone who disagrees with our American political views”.

    Just what????

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  • [+] -11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Well that's what I noticed in my experience. You can't argue with experience yk?

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Maybe .ml has good moderation and you're just insufferable.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I read about their questionable behavior somewhere so you should be able to look it up and see it yourself.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I've heard equally unreliable narrators complain about consequences for their actions from a place of narcissism, yes.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    I always see unhinged folk making bad faith arguments or outright shit talk shriek about being banned from ml instances for "disagreeing" then turn around and cheer when .world bans you for linking a source or something.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It's more about the fact that kagi pays yandex and yandex pays taxes to one of the craziest goverment in the world

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  • [+] -7 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Well Yandex isn't the best choice for anything obviously but (sorry for getting political again) imo US government is worse. And my comment wasn't about that even. The post doesn't have anything to do with privacy so it's offtopic and should be removed.

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  • [+] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    The thing is we don't know, we can't know and the article just link to a youtube video that I can't understand shit.

    They don't need to share things with Yandex, if they share anything valuable with any other major search engine is already fucking bad.

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  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    That's another story then. The current post is nothing but hate and politics. The title is clickbait and misleading. It should've been written completely differently.

    EDIT: well there's no point in arguing with those who think they can blindly use any means possible to hurt Russia and anything related (or not) to it. It makes sense though still a bit stupid.

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