Right, one that by my understanding “pools” searches, in a way. As their blog put it in 2023:
“Mullvad Leta uses the Google Search API as a proxy, caching each search. These cached results are shared amongst all users, reducing costs and improving privacy. This service is user-supported and doesn't rely on ads or data selling.”
I thought the google search and bing API terms explicitly forbade you from caching the results for more than a short period of time
exactly to stop people doing this
That short period of time is likely to pool a group of users. Even if not, using Mullvad as a personal proxy for Google is a better privacy-conscious decision than using Google directly.
It seems like the Google Search API quotas would be a problem, unless they have some special deal with Google.
I'm curious doesn't outright say whether personal data is logged or kept? Like with the hashed original search or even separately.
The FAQ also mentions user changeable settings for freshness, can't see that.
Still very kind of them :)