The fallout from Edward Snowden revealing that the US spy agency NSA had access to online the records of millions of internet users was a headache for many internet giants like Google and Facebook, but for one smaller company it was like water off a duck's back.

Amid growing concerns over the amount of information being recorded by websites, some more private alternatives have experienced a dramatic growth in popularity.

One such site is DuckDuckGo, which displays internet search results like Google but without recording any information about you.

Direct searches on the website were fluctuating around 1.6 million a day for the last few months, but have risen steadily since the scandal broke two weeks ago.

Yesterday just over 3 million searches were recorded, the most ever on the website.

The website's popularity surged after the NSA/PRISM scandal broke.

The website explains, using the example of a search for “herpes”, how Google logs information in such a way that you can be identified individually by it.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that through a system known as PRISM the US National Surveillance Agency had direct access to the private information of millions of internet users.