Search engines
Swisscows privacy rating
Search engine from the Swiss company Swisscows AG that filters out adult content, does not use tracking cookies or build user profiles, and offers an ad-free paid tier.
Summary
Swisscows scores 50 out of 100 (grade D) on the search engines criteria. It meets 3 of 11 criteria: TLS configuration, no search history logs and no profile-based ads. It partly meets no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, transparency report and no account needed. It does not meet open source, independent audit, tells users about requests and security headers. It is based in Switzerland: Not in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes; GDPR-style data protection law. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade C-.
Score 50 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
- No
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Partial
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?
No tracking cookies, pixels or fingerprinting; anonymized usage data is stored in a self-hosted analytics system.
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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 partly by text ads chosen from the search query and region, with an ad-free paid tier.
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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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Partial
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
The privacy policy describes how government requests are reviewed, but no request counts are 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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Yes
No search history logs Weight 3 of 3
Are searches stored without IP addresses or other identifiers?
Search queries are anonymized and not tied to user profiles; IP addresses passed to ad partners have the last octet masked.
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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 selected from the search query and region, not a profile.
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Partial
No account needed Weight 1 of 3
Can every feature be used without an account?
Search works without registration; Swisscows Pro and other extra features need an 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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No
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade C- (45/100+)
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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.