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Find out the steps we take to keep your data safe

From September 2023, we will be gradually rolling out our new unique search offer. This will happen over several months and won’t apply to everyone at the same time. This means that when you search through Ecosia, we work with either Microsoft Bing or, with your consent, Google to provide you with search results and ads. In order to do this, we automatically collect data required by search partners to prevent bot attacks and ad fraud - which includes your IP address and search terms.

For a growing number of users we can now provide Google results and advertisements. In order to supply these results and ads, Google requires a cookie to be set on your browser and access to your device’s local storage to store information. We will ask for your consent before doing this and if you do not agree, we will provide non-personalized results from Microsoft Bing.

In order to provide non-personalized Microsoft Bing results and ads, we are contractually obliged to implement Microsoft Clarity to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, as well as sharing your IP address and search terms. This behavioral data is captured in individual search sessions and is not tied to a user profile unless you consent. The processing of this data is necessary for the provision of our service. Although Ecosia does not use this information, it is used by Microsoft Bing for site and advertising optimization, as well as fraud protection. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit Microsoft’s privacy statement and Microsoft Clarity documentation.

Microsoft Bing does also offer personalized search results and ads. This service requires a cookie to be set on your browser which creates a personal profile. We will ask for your consent before enabling this and you can change your choice at any time in your cookie preferences. More information on cookies and how to take control of your preferences can be found in the “What about cookies?” section.

  • Matomo@lemmy.ml
    43·
    1 year ago

    It sounds like they don’t really have a choice in this unless they completely switch up their internal search engines, right? Like, it’s a shame, but not exactly something they’re to blame for? Or am I missing something?

    • macallik@kbin.socialOP
      26·
      1 year ago

      I am not blaming them as much as I am reevaluating their usefulness given the additional context in their updated statement (which was likely the case this entire time)

      1. ‘Their’ privacy policy now roughly equates to “We don’t really do anything but you should read the privacy policy of Microsoft (and optionally Google).” It feels less like an alternative search engine and more like a middle-man that still passes the data long. Speaking of which:
      2. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but they are touting ‘non-personalized results and ads’ as if that’s the privacy end goal, when it’s really just the side-effect of companies not having data on you. Based on their updated policy, they are giving the illusion of privacy via ‘non-personalized results’ while capturing/sharing searches, behaviors & IP address that I’m guessing can easily be deanonymized @ Microsoft.

      Maybe I’m misreading something? It reads like the same experience of using Bing without the marginal benefit of a personalized experience.

    • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.one
      18·
      1 year ago

      No, it appears you are correct. Looks like they’re being bullied by Google and Microsoft.

      I only use Ecosia as my search engine at work, so I’m not too concerned since I’ve got bigger fish to fry at work, such as Zoom and Google Drive.

    • m_randall@sh.itjust.works
      102·
      1 year ago

      I’ll join in. Just signed up for the trial of Kagi after seeing an article on here and I’ve already subscribed. I don’t miss google at all and am excited to play with some of the innovating features (lenses look neat).

      http://kagi.com

      • Samsy@lemmy.ml
        3·
        1 year ago

        It’s a paid service and needs login. Well… searXNG looks like to be the opposite.

    • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
      3·
      1 year ago

      I tried using Searx a while ago but it always got blocked by the search engines. Your mileage may vary.

      • rgb3x3@beehaw.org
        6·
        1 year ago

        So this is a search aggregator that searches across the main sites? And they’re hosted by individuals and I can create my own instance if I want?

        That’s actually real cool

        • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
          1·
          1 year ago

          In concept, it didn’t work that well when I tried it a few months ago, personally.

  • macallik@kbin.socialOP
    65·
    1 year ago

    I used it as my primary browser on my laptop/desktop. I supported the cause and through my usage I planted +150 trees, but the trade-off is steepening so I’m going to have to jump ship.

    I’ll be pivoting to DuckDuckGo as my main search engine, and use Brave for more nuanced/specific results.

      • macallik@kbin.socialOP
        52·
        1 year ago

        Wooof. I’ve started using Brave for less then 24 hours and I’m already jumping ship. Anyone backed by Peter Thiel is an immediate ‘no’ for me.

        I’ll have to try Whoogle or SearXNG but both constantly get blocked. Maybe I can resolve the issues w/ self-hosting? Otherwise, I might just try to redirect most of my questions to open-source LLMs

          • macallik@kbin.socialOP
            1·
            1 year ago

            Was struggling through an attempted self-install of SearXNG. So far so good, w/ this one, thanks for sharing

        • namnnumbr@lemmy.mlEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          I strongly advocate for Kagi. Yes, it’s paid search, but it means that there is no tracking or ad revenue concerns obfuscating the search results.

          • kraniax@lemmy.wtf
            2·
            1 year ago

            until you release that due to needing an account, all your search queries are tied to your account and even if they claim not to, it would be trivial for Kagi to associate all of them with you.

            and we don’t have the code of their servers, we know nothing of how they handle this critical information, other than their “trust me bro”.

            (and even if they are not directly associating this information, if they store some kind of logs, it would probably be trivial for any third party that gets access to their servers to make the association. an again, we know nothing about their procedures)

    • Southern Wolf@pawb.social
      31·
      1 year ago

      Say what you want about Brave, but at least they are moving to their own indexing. Where as DuckDuckGo is just Bing…

      Also I’d take that anti-Brave link with a grain of salt. I’ve got a hunch it’s somehow connected back to a Vivaldi dev. So I’d view it as highly untrustworthy.

    • FarraigePlaisteach@kbin.social
      32·
      1 year ago

      With DuckDuckGo we get zero trees planted. It’s outside the EU too so although they have a relationship with US companies I hope that there are some protections around data transfer.

      • kraniax@lemmy.wtf
        1·
        1 year ago

        I don’t think so. They have commercial agreements with Microsoft that forces them to not block their trackers, so who knows what else they are obliged to by contract

        For non-search tracker blocking (eg in our browser), we block most third-party trackers. Unfortunately our Microsoft search syndication agreement prevents us from doing more to Microsoft-owned properties. However, we have been continually pushing and expect to be doing more soon.

        https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/duckduckgo-browser-allows-microsoft-trackers-due-to-search-agreement/

        • FarraigePlaisteach@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          The Microsoft one does concern me. The Google features are optional to the user, but not the MS ones.

          Funny. MS used to ridicule Google for being an “advertising company”. Probably said in jealousy since they’re no different now.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      28·
      1 year ago

      A browser isn’t a search engine A browser isn’t a search engine A browser isn’t a search engine A browser isn’t a search engine A browser isn’t a search engine A browser isn’t a search engine A browser isn’t a search engine A browser isn’t a search engine

      • noodlejetski@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 year ago

        look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search look up Brave search