Search the Web, Plant a Tree

jonmc

Earth Day is just around the corner and we have some great news for you. If you care about the environment and love (or can’t live without) searching things online with our search partner Ecosia, then get ready to be intrigued.

Click here to see the full blog post

Steffie

@jonmc

https://ecosia.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003863513-What-data-does-Ecosia-share-with-its-search-partner-Bing-
Ecosia Search is a Bing-powered search engine. This means that Bing provides us with the search results relevant for your search term. In order to prevent fraudulent activity, and to provide you with the best search experience possible, Bing requires us to send the following information with your search request:
Your IP address
Your browser’s User Agent string, which identifies what browser and browser version you are using (Chrome, or Firefox Mobile for example)
Your search term
Your country and language settings
Your “Adult content filter” settings
Your active search filter settings (for example: filtering search results by time)
Additionally, by default Ecosia sets a Bing-specific “Client ID” parameter to improve the quality of your search results. This parameter is a unique ID used to generate more relevant search results based on your past search history. This ID is stored in your Ecosia cookie for use across multiple sessions.
If your browser has “Do Not Track” enabled, we disable the “Client ID” automatically.

Ecosia does not permanently store your IP address or any unique identifier and our partner Bing automatically deletes your search history and the unique identifier after 18 months according to their privacy policy.
https://ecosia.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/214375485-What-are-personalized-search-results-

Nope, not willing to become the product, even for "only" 1.5 years. Am sticking with DDG & StartPage. Gaia is massively important to me, but i'm not selling myself off for it. My anti-anthropogenic climate change activities will just have to keep on in other forms.

IF Ecosia is actually more comparable to DDG & SP re privacy than my cynical assumptions suggest, would someone more knowledgeable about it than me pls comment?

Fendar

Well, despite all ongoing issues and bugs I have with Vivaldi I really love your browser and your company! It (and you) make(s) a difference in so many ways. It has become so difficult to find "don't be evil"-companys. But Vivaldi is one of 'em. And (for example) Google isn't anymore.
And in terms of Ecosia: It's so easy typing "e [searchstring]" instead of "g [searchstring]". And the results are mostly the ones I'm looking for (at least in 95% of all cases).
Can we vote Vivaldi (or Jon!) for president somehow?! ^^
Sadly humanity has so many more problems we have to face (exploding world population, shameful treatment of the environment, large-scale livestock farming (caused by our far too high meat consumption), greed(!)).
It's nice that some companies also try to make the world a better place. But in the end everyone of us has to make the difference him-/herself.
Anyway, 1UP for you, Vialdi-Team!

luetage

@fendar said in Search the Web, Plant a Tree:

But in the end everyone of us has to make the difference him-/herself.

I'm afraid that won't do. The populace isn't only growing, but the standard of living is rising in former 3rd world countries. This means, if we keep this to the example of meat consumption, our need for meat will explode too. Rising awareness and a do-good attitude of a minority in industrialized nations won't change a thing about this.

The only solution lies with technology. We have to grow meat in industrial laboratories and produce it cheap for the masses. In a perfect scenario the rich and famous will enjoy live meat, while all the others eat lab meat.

It's the same with all the problems we face today, they have to be solved scientifically. Democracy, capitalism and the free market won't allow us to regulate ourselves in a way that we don't run everything into the ground.

Steffie

@luetage said in Search the Web, Plant a Tree:

In a perfect scenario the rich and famous will enjoy live meat, while all the others eat lab meat

Vegetarians [should] Rulz.

luetage

@steffie said in Search the Web, Plant a Tree:

Vegetarians [should] Rulz.

Maybe. The problem with veganism/vegetarianism is it's not a world religion. If we had this instead of islam/catholicism/buddhism/etc. we would be far better off

Steffie

@luetage Yes!!

An_dz

@steffie: Ecosia is a search engine like Bing or Google on the privacy perspective, but they donate 80% of their profits to plant trees. Google and Bing don't.

Note however (I may be wrong on this as I just glanced on their policies) that Ecosia themselves are not the ones who keep your data, but Bing, as they are a "proxy".

Now it's up to the user to choose what they want.

I, like you, prefer to stay with DDG & SP as I value my privacy more important than help planting trees.

mraandtux

Too bad that the IP addresses my cable company (GCable in Southern China) used were flagged as "unusual traffic" and being captcha-walled. Filed my complaint. (I'm not very pro-captcha - especially ReCaptcha)