WHAT THE POLICIES SAY

Ecosia is a Berlin-based search engine operated by Ecosia GmbH that funds tree planting with ad revenue. It does not run its own index: search results and ads are delivered by Microsoft Bing, Google, or the EUSP joint venture, and every search automatically sends the user's IP address and search terms to the serving partner. Ecosia anonymizes IP addresses internally after at most 7 days, uses a self-hosted analytics tool by default, and gates Microsoft Clarity session analytics and personalized ads behind consent, though Google-served users get Google results by default and Google may set additional cookies outside the EU/UK. The company is steward-owned with a Purpose Foundation golden share, publishes monthly financial reports, and has no publicly known breaches or regulator enforcement actions.

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[2026-03-23] · COLLECTION

Ecosia's help center article "How Ecosia Protects Your Privacy," last updated 2026-03-23, states that while Ecosia anonymizes IP addresses after at most 7 days, its search partners retain them longer — Microsoft anonymizes IP addresses after 6 months and Google after 9 months for users who consent to Google results — and that Ecosia does not buy additional data from data brokers.

support.ecosia.org ↗

[2026-05-21] · COLLECTION

Ecosia's privacy policy, last updated 2026-05-21, states that Ecosia collects the data its search partners require — including IP address, search terms, and session behavioral data — and that Ecosia anonymizes IP addresses internally after a maximum of 7 days.

web.archive.org ↗

OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

The Purpose Foundation's company profile for Ecosia states that Ecosia transitioned to steward ownership in 2018 with a golden-share model, that no one inside or outside the company holds economic rights to Ecosia, and that the company can never be sold, with control remaining with people directly involved in its mission.

purpose-economy.org ↗

[2018-10-25] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

In a company announcement published 2018-10-25, Ecosia stated it had converted to steward-ownership, under which shares cannot be sold at a profit or held by people outside the company and no profits can be taken out of the company.

blog.ecosia.org ↗

[2026-05-21] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

Ecosia's privacy policy, last updated 2026-05-21, identifies the GDPR-responsible entity as Ecosia GmbH of Gerichtstraße 23, 13347 Berlin, Germany, names an external Data Protection Officer channel, and references the company's publicly published monthly financial reports.

web.archive.org ↗

[2026-05-21] · SHARING

Ecosia's privacy policy, last updated 2026-05-21, states that the user's IP address and search terms are automatically shared with search partners Microsoft Bing or Google on every search, that image partners Tripadvisor and Wikimedia receive the user's IP address, that Ecosia's Bing feed is maintained through a commercial relationship with System1 (aggregated data only), and that AI chat queries go to Mistral AI under a zero-data-retention policy with OpenAI as a fallback that stores input and output for 30 days.

web.archive.org ↗

[2026-05-22] · SHARING

Ecosia's help center article "Search Result Providers," last updated 2026-05-22, states that search results and ads come from Microsoft Bing, Google, and EUSP (European Search Perspective), and that which provider delivers a given user's results depends on location, device type, and the cookie and privacy permissions the user has granted.

support.ecosia.org ↗

[2014-04-15] · TRACK RECORD

Ecosia announced on 2014-04-15 that it had been certified as a B Corporation by B Lab, a recurring third-party certification of social and environmental accountability standards (not a data-protection audit).

blog.ecosia.org ↗

[2024-11-12] · TRACK RECORD

CNBC reported on 2024-11-12 that Ecosia had switched in 2023 from Bing-based results to a mix of Google and Bing search results, and that Ecosia and Qwant announced a 50-50 joint venture, European Search Perspective (EUSP), to build their own "privacy-first" European search index and reduce dependence on US providers.

cnbc.com ↗

[2025-07-15] · TRACKING TECH

Ecosia's help center article on Ecosia Browser privacy settings, last updated 2025-07-15, states the desktop browser includes built-in ad and tracker blocking, anti-fingerprinting via randomization, and third-party cookie blocking, but that ecosia.org itself is automatically whitelisted from the browser's blocker to preserve ad revenue.

support.ecosia.org ↗

[2026-05-21] · TRACKING TECH

Ecosia's privacy policy, last updated 2026-05-21, states that with consent Ecosia implements Microsoft Clarity behavioral session analytics when results come from Bing (aggregated click data retained 13 months, session recordings up to 30 days), that eligible users receive Google results by default with Google essential cookies, and that outside the EU, UK, and certain US states Google may place additional cookies whose function depends on the user's Google account settings.

web.archive.org ↗

LAST REVIEWED 2026-08-04 · METHODOLOGY v1.7