# YaCy privacy rating

Free search engine software that users run themselves, either as a personal or intranet search portal with its own crawler, or as a peer in a decentralized network that shares a web index.

## Summary

YaCy scores 88 out of 100 (grade B) on the search engines criteria. It meets 6 of 7 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, no search history logs, no profile-based ads and no account needed. It does not meet independent audit.

- Website: https://yacy.net
- Source code: https://github.com/yacy/yacy_search_server
- Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Home page trackers: none found
- Category: [Search engines](https://privacyratings.com/search-engines/)
- Grade: B (88/100)

## Criteria

| Criterion | Answer | Note | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later, with some library code under LGPL. | https://github.com/yacy/yacy_search_server/blob/master/COPYRIGHT |
| No trackers or telemetry | Yes | The software collects no personal data and does not phone home. | https://yacy.net/ |
| No ads or data sales | Yes | Free software funded by donations and community support, with no ads. | https://yacy.net/ |
| Independent audit | No | No independent audit is published. |  |
| No search history logs | Yes | Searches run on the user's own server, and the peer-to-peer network does not store search requests. | https://yacy.net/ |
| No profile-based ads | Yes | No ads are shown. | https://yacy.net/ |
| No account needed | Yes | Self-hosted software that needs no account. | https://github.com/yacy/yacy_search_server |

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