Search engines
Ecosia privacy rating
Search engine from the Berlin company Ecosia that shows results and ads from Microsoft Bing or Google and uses its profits for tree planting and climate projects.
Summary
Ecosia scores 41 out of 100 (grade D) on the search engines criteria. It meets 2 of 11 criteria: TLS configuration and no profile-based ads. It partly meets open source, no ads or data sales, security headers, no search history logs and no account needed. It does not meet no trackers or telemetry, independent audit, transparency report and tells users about requests. It is based in Germany: Fourteen Eyes member; EU member (GDPR). Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B.
Score 41 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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Partial
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
The iOS browser app is open source under MPL-2.0. The search engine itself is not.
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
Uses third-party services including Microsoft Clarity and Braze, and the apps send device statistics and install attribution data.
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Partial
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Funded by search ads from Microsoft Bing or Google, which are non-personalized unless the user consents.
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No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published.
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No
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
No transparency report or government request policy is published.
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No
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
No published policy on notifying users about data requests.
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Partial
No search history logs Weight 3 of 3
Are searches stored without IP addresses or other identifiers?
IP addresses are anonymized after at most seven days; search terms are shared with Bing or Google.
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Yes
No profile-based ads Weight 2 of 3
Are ads (if any) based only on the current search, not a profile?
Ads are non-personalized by default, and personalized ads are shown only with explicit consent.
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Partial
No account needed Weight 1 of 3
Can every feature be used without an account?
Search works without an account; sync and AI chat history need an Ecosia account.
Automated tests
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Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A+
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Partial
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade B (75/100+)
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Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.