Ecosia adds Microsoft Clarity and optional Google search results and advertising

Tibert@jlai.lu to Technology@lemmy.world – 157 points – We protect your privacy
ecosia.org

Ecosia adds "contractually forced" Microsoft Clarity tracking (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/clarity/setup-and-installation/about-clarity | privacy faq : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/clarity/faq#privacy), which will record the behaviour of users on the website. Recording clics, size, and more.

They will also add an optional Google setting. Enabling the cookie will allow to get search results from Google, but also to get tracked by Google.

Optional Microsoft advertising tracking is still a thing, tho it may not be necessary if Bing can get a fingerprint and behaviour of the user in real time...

This may be the final flow for Ecosia for me. Unless somehow the Microsoft Clarity can be private... But I don't think so.

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I don't want to spam but just wrote up a huge ass comment detailing several novel and open source search engines that don't get talked about much. If anyone here would like to learn more about SearX, Marginalia Search, and YaCy feel free to check it out

I use Ecosia for the environmental aspect, not the privacy, so I'm gonna stay with it.

Same, plus clearing all cookies when closing the browser. Still, combining search tterms and IP is giving me pause.

Ecosia doesn't apply tracking cookies. And fingerprinting does not need cookies. It just needs to know what you are.

Device size, information, browser... And other shared info.

aren't they using bing also? (I never checked, and still not going to check right now... because I'm .......)

I'm using duckduckgo but how would they avoid this if Microsoft make it mandatory by contract?

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/05/duckduckgo-microsoft-tracking-scripts/

They block the tracking.

company has announced it’s been able to amend terms with Microsoft, its search syndication partner, that had previously meant its mobile browsers and browser extensions were prevented from blocking advertising requests made by Microsoft scripts on third party sites.

Wonder how they were able to negotiate what even ecosia weren't.

I'm guessing they have quite a bit more users and thus can negotiate better.

That doesn't seem to mention Microsoft Clarity, other than it being on the list of domains that its ad blocker (not its search engine) blocks?

According to them DuckDuckGo largely sources Bing, however they also have their own crawler called DuckDuckBot.

My only concern with DDG is that they are US based and as far as I know they can be submitted to a gag order and forced to silently give private data to some agencies.

After the Snowden leaks this doesn't inspire much confidence in their ability to protect the privacy of their users.

I think they simply can't guarantee any privacy even if they have good intentions.

Can you even create an account on ddg? What data do they have on you?

Not being argumentative, I'm genuinely curious.

You can create an account on DDG.

Even if you don't they can probably link your IP to search requests.

And even if they refuse, some agency could probably install their own software to track users.

I understand this looks like paranoia but again considering the invasion of privacy the NSA did in the past, it's not really far fetched.

They don't give as good results anymore. I was with them from the beginning when they had that bubble page showing that they don't trap you in a bubble.

Now my results show very specific results to my location even when I have it disabled and set to all regions.

Keep up with the Duck.

DDG uses the same bullshit. Sorry.

Is there a reason people aren’t suggesting startpage as an alternative to ecosia or DuckDuckGo?

What I remember : Startpage has been bought by an advertising company. So who knows what they could do with it.

Mm I do think I remember the controversy around that. Such a bummer because their anonymous webpage viewing is such a cool feature

I just made the switch from duck duck go, because I read there was some sketchy shit going on as well... Can someone recommend me an alternative for both of them?

Out of the loop, what's the sketchy shit going on with πŸ¦†πŸ¦† go?

I'm trying out Kagi atm, but it's not free. The alternative is basically "pick your poison". I think any "free" service will inevitably end up in the same sketchy shit all companies large enough are drawn into.

Still not sure where I land at the end of the trial; the cost is really pushing the limit of what I could justify paying for online search.

I just started the trial the other day and set it as my default browser. So far, I feel like the results are better than DDG and it feels cleaner/better organized. It has cool customizations that I'll probably never touch.

It's honestly gonna hurt to go back. But not as much as the pricetag. Maybe it should be lumped into a suite of some sort.

all the more reason to keep using ublock origin.

Not sure using Ecosia has any benefit if using ublock to block everything.

Oh man I just made the switch!

Ecosias results are almost as bad as DDGs.

Just get kagi and remember what good web searching feels like.

I'd rather never use a search engine again than pay $10 a month for one

How would you even function on the internet without one?

Knowing the sites you use

What kind of job do you do that never requires research?

I thought we were talking about a personal setting and weren’t including internal search engines but there are many jobs that don’t require it