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Kagi and privacy: marketing vs reality

If we look at the website of Kagi [ kagi.com ], it is stated in several places that they present themselves as defenders of online privacy and confidentiality, which I of course welcome.

What is Kagi?

Kagi is a company founded in 2018 in Palo Alto, California (USA) by Vladimir Prelovac (see Wikipedia [ fr.wikipedia.org ]).

Kagi started with Kagi Search as an alternative to Google and has since expanded to offer:

  • Kagi Assistant: an alternative to OpenAI ChatGPT
  • Kagi News: an alternative to Google News
  • Kagi Orion: a paid alternative to Google Chrome
  • Kagi Search: an alternative to Google
  • Kagi Translate: an alternative to Google Translate

Being opposed to the GAFAM [ en.wikipedia.org ], I was initially attracted to Kagi. Unfortunately, I then had the “bad” idea of contacting their support to learn more.

Evidence and exchanges with Kagi support regarding privacy

The following screenshots are unedited copies of my exchanges with Kagi support.

My message – 2025-11-23, 9:30 PM

Original capture of the message sent to Kagi on 2025-11-23 at 9:30 PM
Original capture of the message sent to Kagi on 2025-11-23 at 9:30 PM

Kagi’s reply – 2025-11-24, 11:26 AM

Original capture of Kagi's response on 2025-11-24 at 11:26 AM
Original capture of Kagi's response on 2025-11-24 at 11:26 AM

My reply – 2025-11-24, 11:59 PM

Original capture of the message sent to Kagi on 2025-11-24 at 11:59 PM
Original capture of the message sent to Kagi on 2025-11-24 at 11:59 PM

Kagi’s reply – 2025-11-25, 8:42 PM

Original capture of Kagi's response on 2025-11-25 at 8:42 PM
Original capture of Kagi's response on 2025-11-25 at 8:42 PM

My reply – 2025-11-26, 1:29 AM

Original capture of the message sent to Kagi on 2025-11-26 at 1:29 AM
Original capture of the message sent to Kagi on 2025-11-26 at 1:29 AM

Why does Kagi fail to meet its privacy and confidentiality commitments?

In summary, Kagi does not respect its privacy commitments because:

  • Based in the USA: No GDPR, National Security Letters, Patriot Act, member of the Five Eyes
  • No client-side end-to-end encryption: as explained in the support exchanges, without this technology, their promise relies solely on user trust
  • Opaque hosting providers: they clearly told me they use third-party hosts without naming them, and that these hosts do not support encryption
  • Evasive answers: they respond by skirting around the questions without ever truly answering them
  • Silence as admission: once they are cornered (no more arguments, clearly in the wrong), they stop responding

Conclusion

To summarize, and as mentioned during the exchange, Kagi is today (2025-11-29) less bad than GAFAM, but remains far from being a credible actor in terms of privacy and confidentiality, despite its marketing.