My search engine of choice is Ecosia. Here’s why:
We use the profit we make from your searches to plant trees where they are needed most. Get the free browser extension and plant trees with every search.
Kewl! Plus, it has a cute logo. AND, you can help plant trees by buying some seriously attractive clothing, with all the profits going to forestation.
They’re also privacy-conscious.
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Write about someone who wears their heart on their sleeve. Or their t-shirt.
MA
Roy A Ackerman, PhD, EA
January 10, 2020 at 8:48amSince you are agreeing to let them track you (and therefore sell you data), to whom are they selling that data? Are those firms also eco-conscious? Otherwise, you may plant one tree a month to support a firm that destroys the environment every minute… (I don’t see them qualifying any advertisers.)
Marian Allen
January 10, 2020 at 9:52amhttps://www.patharoundtheworld.com/ecosia-review/
Holly Jahangiri
January 10, 2020 at 9:56amRoy, did you look into that or just drop a doubt-inducing question implying something negative?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ecosia-use-profits-to-plant-trees/
– interesting assessment and evaluation of the claims, along with a few pros and cons (not really cons, but considerations about carbon footprint and partnerships)
https://info.ecosia.org/privacy#privacy-faq-item-4
– Ecosia’s own privacy FAQ (answers your question, I think)
Being based in Germany, they likely have much stricter GDPR compliance policies and risks than most of us do. I added it just now to Chrome. When you consider that most of us blithely use sites and apps and accept their privacy policies without a lot of scrutiny, I’m okay with this.
I first learned about Ecosia from a CNET article on ways to help out during the fires in Australia.