this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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I believe the issue would still be the same because it is still just your searches alone, which means a profile can be built based on your activity, regardless if done through a VPN, a "bot", or the search engine itself. Self-hosting SearXNG essentially multiplies this issue by the number of search engines you use.
Getting your friends and family to use the instance can help obfuscate the potential profile to make it more difficult to tie the profile to yourself.
I'm not sure. I figured a profile could still be built based on similar searches across multiple IPs, which could be linked to the same person. I'm assuming search engines like Google are smart enough to detect similar data/metadata in such a fashion. What I understood from the article is that its not necessarily a matter of changing your IP, but making your searches appear generalized enough to not be easily matched to your tendencies/behavior/language, like alternating your walking style and covering your tracks so that it is more difficult to track you. Having a group of people use your instance hides yourself amongst a crowd essentially, since different people have different ways of expressing themselves.