# Marginalia Search privacy rating

Independent open-source search engine from Sweden with its own crawler and index, focused on finding small, non-commercial and text-heavy websites.

## Summary

Marginalia Search scores 70 out of 100 (grade C) on the search engines criteria. It meets 6 of 11 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, TLS configuration, no profile-based ads and no account needed. It partly meets transparency report and no search history logs. It does not meet independent audit, tells users about requests and security headers. It is based in Sweden: Fourteen Eyes member; EU member (GDPR). Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade D.

- Website: https://marginalia-search.com
- Source code: https://github.com/MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch
- Jurisdiction: Sweden. Fourteen Eyes member. EU member (GDPR).
- Home page trackers: none found
- Category: [Search engines](https://privacyratings.com/search-engines/)
- Grade: C (70/100)

## Criteria

| Criterion | Answer | Note | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | Yes | AGPL-3.0. | https://github.com/MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch/blob/master/LICENSE.md |
| No trackers or telemetry | Yes | No tracking pixels, third-party requests or click tracking; cookies only store settings. | https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/privacy/ |
| No ads or data sales | Yes | Funded by donations, grants and API deals, with no ads. | https://about.marginalia-search.com/ |
| Independent audit | No | No independent audit is published. |  |
| Transparency report | Partial | The privacy policy explains that minimal retention limits what can be handed over in response to legal requests, but no request counts are published. | https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/privacy/ |
| Tells users about requests | No | No published policy on notifying users about data requests. |  |
| TLS configuration | Yes | Grade A | https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=marginalia-search.com&hideResults=on |
| Security headers | No | Grade D (30/100+) | https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/observatory/analyze?host=marginalia-search.com |
| Modern web standards | Not tested yet | Not tested yet. |  |
| No search history logs | Partial | Access logs with IP addresses are kept for up to 24 hours, and click data is not collected. | https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/privacy/ |
| No profile-based ads | Yes | No ads are shown. | https://about.marginalia-search.com/ |
| No account needed | Yes | Search needs no account; settings are stored in a cookie. | https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/privacy/ |

Source: https://privacyratings.com/search-engines/marginalia-search/
Edit: https://github.com/privacyratings/privacyratings.com/edit/main/ratings/search-engines/marginalia-search.md