Startpage

The operating entity, Surfboard Holding B.V., is incorporated and run in the Netherlands and is directly subject to Dutch law and the EU GDPR, with the Dutch Data Protection Authority as supervisor — strong EU enforceability against the entity users actually deal with. But the parent, System1, is incorporated in Delaware and runs from Los Angeles, so the controlling layer sits outside EU jurisdiction.

System1 holds a majority stake in Surfboard Holding through US subsidiary Privacy One Group, and System1 is publicly listed on the NYSE (SST) — so both voting control and the economic majority sit with a US public company. EU founders (Robert Beens et al.) retain a minority stake plus a contractual veto over privacy-affecting technical changes, which is meaningful governance but not control of the cap table. Exact percentages were never disclosed.

Startpage operates from the Netherlands and System1's own 10-K lists data-center space in the Netherlands (alongside the US and Canada), so user-facing search infrastructure is plausibly EU-located — better than a US-region-on-a-hyperscaler setup. However, the controlling parent is a US company, exposing the data layer to US legal reach (e.g. CLOUD Act) through ownership, and Startpage does not publicly publish a precise data-residency / hosting-provider map. Startpage's design (no IP logging since 2009, no personal-data storage) limits what data exists to begin with.

Startpage's day-to-day operation, staff and CEO (Robert Beens) sit in The Hague, and the product is held in System1's S1 Media subsidiary. But the consolidated group is US-centered: System1 states its primary operations are in the United States with principal offices in Los Angeles, reports in US dollars, and is run by a US executive team. So Startpage's own people are EU, but the operating gravity of the owning group is American.