There is a StartPage Safari Extension available for download and installation from Apple.

You may have to switch her setting in Safari > Prefs > Search > Search engine.

...but I've got a new icon to the left of my Safari address bar….

Me too, although I can't determine its purpose. It seems redundant. If I enter a search in the window it presents, I get the same results as I do when conducting the same search in the normal way.

There is a StartPage Safari Extension available for download and installation from Apple. I would put that in an even higher level of safety than downloading from the developer. Not only has the developer proofed the file, so has Apple.

jaybass's source IS the app's developer.

But of course you are right! I would revise Rule #1 to reflect such.

Just bear in mind that there are apps that offer versions on their developers' websites that differ from those offered through the App Store, and at least some of them lose desirable functionality when d/l'ed from the latter, at least sometimes because of sandboxing.

True. But being unable to effectively vet the necessity or desirability of the original vs App Store's offering (ie, unless I were somehow able to definitively determine the safety of the developer's offering), I'd still opt for the latter just to be on the safe side.

...but I've got a new icon to the left of my Safari address bar….

Me too, although I can't determine its purpose. It seems redundant. If I enter a search in the window it presents, I get the same results as I do when conducting the same search in the normal way.

My understanding is that when you search via the window presented when you click on its icon you get the same Google results you'd otherwise get, but your "identity" is blocked.

You don't see it in the pref pane because it's not a pref, rather it's a non-pref option.

Oh...I assumed that identity-blocking was a proxy function.

If I look at the results of a Google page search, the various destinations have "proxy" in their descriptions. I thought that, if I then click on proxy, StartPage processes the link but first "cleans" my request.

Is the SP icon a way of accomplishing the same end but without the interim step?

Dunno, ryck; I'm not even certain that my "understanding" is correct.

That's one of the things I tried but there was no StartPage to choose, only Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo (whatever that is). Interestingly, it's the same in my Safari - those four choices but no StartPage.

DuckDuckGo is actually somewhat more private than Startpage. Startpage is officially a Google partner, so it is not 100% clean; some user identifiable information (specifically, your IP address) is sent to Google.

DuckDuckGo (Wikipedia)
IxQuick/Startpage (Wikipedia)

DuckDuckGo is actually somewhat more private than Startpage. Startpage is officially a Google partner, so it is not 100% clean; some user identifiable information (specifically, your IP address) is sent to Google.

StartPage ~ the world's most private search engine on October 27, 2016 Reply
StartPage is an independent company, separate from Google. We do not share your IP address with Google or with any provider of sponsored search results or ads.

StartPage acts as an intermediary between you and Google. StartPage submits your query to Google anonymously, then returns Google results to you privately. Google never sees you and does not know who made the search request; they only see StartPage.

Since Google never sees your IP address or interacts with your web browser, you do not receive tracking cookies from Google. What’s more, since Google can’t determine your interests based on your past search history, you receive standard search results rather than Google’s “personalized” results.

We never record your visits, your searches, or your IP address, and we do not use tracking cookies. Any ads that appear on StartPage are generated solely from the search term you entered. Ads are not customized for the person entering the search nor do they reflect your prior search or browsing history, since we never access or store that information.

I totally lost track of your problem with your wife's account; I'd report it to StartPage's developer as a bug.

You might take a look at this comparison of DuckDuckGo and StartPage. It not only compares the two it also gives a succinct description about how StartPage works and hides your data. StartPage's method for hiding your information and location is pretty slick.

DuckDuckGo's searches are powered by Yahoo, and StartPage's are powered by Google, so your results are presented in the default format of the ultimate search engine.

I haven't done much testing, but every time I've compared Google's search results with Yahoo's - same search term, of course - I've found that looking beyond Google's paid and otherwise highly placed results, I've been much happier with their results than with Yahoo's despite Yahoo's presentation being more user-friendly.

DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "about 50" sources,[41] including Yahoo! Search BOSS; Wikipedia; Wolfram Alpha; Bing; its own Web crawler, the DuckDuckBot; and others.[2][41][42] It also uses data from crowdsourced sites, including Wikipedia, to populate "Zero-click Info" boxes – grey boxes above the results that display topic summaries and related topics.[43]

If Google has your IP address, it actually becomes surprisingly easy to identify you if you ever use Google directly for search. It's not hard to put two and two together; Google gleans information about you from your search habits, then connects the dots with your IP address. Machine learning systems are very good at connecting seemingly harmless and disparate bits of information into a surprisingly detailed whole.