Norton Safe Search uses signature-based file scanning, intrusion detection engines, behavioural detection, and install/uninstall analysis to identify security risks such as phishing sites, malicious downloads, browser exploits, and links to unsafe external sites.

In addition, Norton Safe Search works with the Norton Safe Web extension on the backend. Together, they benefit from a network of millions of Norton Community Watch endpoints that automatically submit suspicious URLs in real-time. This allows Norton Safe Web to quickly identify newly infected sites, and Norton Safe Search to flag them in your search results.

Norton Safe Web also crawls the web and performs thorough analysis on millions of websites, providing greater accuracy to Norton Safe Search’s detection functionality.

Norton Safe Search is similar to other search engines, but with an added layer of security. It’s great at providing the search results you’re used to but makes it easier to differentiate safe internet websites from potentially malicious ones through the visible security ratings on the toolbar or in the search results.

Norton Safe Search is currently available in Danish, German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, and English.

When enabled, the Norton Safe Search’s Unsafe Site Filtering feature helps remove unsafe, non-paid search results. This feature does not provide a security rating for paid search results (sponsored links) or filter out potentially unsafe sponsored links from the search results. For sponsored links, the Norton toolbar allows you to view the associated security rating.γ

Norton Safe Search does not require users to provide any data outside of enrollment and billing processes. Norton Safe Search can be used as a free extension tool or website. If used as such, no user data is collected.

When you submit a search query through Norton Safe Search, it' directed to Ask.com, where your query is processed and the search results are provided. Norton Safe Search does not provide any information about you to our search partners.

As part of your use of Norton Safe Search, search partners may collect and/or ask you to provide certain information. Please see Ask.com's Search Partner's Privacy Policy for details on the type of information collected, how our search partners use and protect the collected information, and who they may share the information with.

You can learn more details here.