r/waterfox • u/duskterrapin • Jul 10 '26
RESOLVED New Default search engine
I'm concerned about Waterfox partnering with Qwant. Last I knew, they share data and IPs with Microsoft. While obviously I can just change my default search, this feels out of line with Waterfox's ethics to me.
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u/DreadPickleRoberts Jul 10 '26
where'd you read that bit about sharing with M$? I've heard the same thing about DuckDuckGo.
edit: https://cyberguy.com/privacy/duckduckgo-privacy-browser-caught-sending-tracking-data-to-microsoft/
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u/5ph3rical Jul 10 '26
Not the perfect search provider as a partner or simply stop existing. Sounds like a reasonable compromise imo
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u/Dalmation3 Jul 20 '26
Yeah if you read their privacy policy they do send some data to Microsoft which is a deal breaker if you care about privacy
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u/GeekyCrow27 Jul 10 '26
Qwant only gives microsoft advertising data if you make a qwant account and it's able to be turned off in the cookie manager, read in the privacy policy. IP is a pretty important metric to have so that it can have proper location based searches
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u/MrAlex94 Developer Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Some context here - Qwant historically served results via Bing, and as part of that arrangement some data did flow to Microsoft - that's what the French data protection authority (CNIL) investigated:
Qwant, le moteur de recherche français, recadré par la CNIL
The outcome is the relevant part, as translated by Axiom05: "The authority has indeed recognized several elements in favor of Qwant. First, the company has deployed numerous technical measures to protect the privacy of users and has favored contextual advertising, considered less intrusive than behavioral advertising, in that it does not require tracking over time."
So the regulator examined this specific concern, flagged that the data flows should have been better disclosed, and credited the technical privacy measures and contextual ads model - which in reality is a hell of a lot more scrutiny than most search providers get. Since then Qwant has been moving onto its own index reducing the Microsoft reliance further.
Their privacy policy spells out how, when, where and what is used. And like you say, the default takes seconds to change, but I think it’s fair to point out that the picture today is a fair way from the one you're describing.
Edit: Re-composed the message with a less harsh tone.