Making search private on Opera takes under a minute. The default engine on Opera was chosen for you, often because someone paid for the spot. Here is how to replace it with one that does not track you.

Step by step on Opera

  1. Open Settings from the menu.
  2. Go to the Search engine section under Basic or Privacy settings.
  3. Choose your private search engine from the dropdown, or add it by its search URL.
  4. Set it as the default.
good to know
Opera's built-in sidebar search uses the same default, so this one change covers both the address bar and sidebar.

What to set it to

For the switch to actually mean something, point the default at an engine that keeps no account and stores no history. Bare is built for exactly this: your query passes through our server only to fetch results, so the index sees our network rather than your address, and nothing is kept once the page loads. Set it once, and every search from Opera on your Opera is private by default.

If you change your mind

There is no risk. Opera lets you switch back through the same menu in seconds, and nothing about your bookmarks or history is affected. Try a private default for a week, most people never switch back.