this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Ecosia adds Microsoft Clarity and optional Google search results and advertising (www.ecosia.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Tibert@jlai.lu to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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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[–] DuskyRo@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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?

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] andthenthreemore@startrek.website 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

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

[–] Vincent@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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?

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Clarity.ms is on the list of blocked domains, I believe these are also blocked on the search engine.

https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/privacy/no-tracking/

[–] Vincent@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

What does "blocked on the search engine" mean?

[–] mouse@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago

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

[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] overcast5348@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

Not being argumentative, I'm genuinely curious.

[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

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.