Sep '23: Content and privacy changes
We’re introducing some changes to Ecosia and are making some updates to improve your search experience.
What’s changing?
From September 2023, Ecosia will be partnering with new search providers to keep improving your search experience and to have an even greater positive climate impact. From now on, you will be getting search results from both Microsoft Bing and Google, to improve your search experience.
We will also be showing you ads through our new providers. This will help us plant even more trees in the future and increase our collective impact.
Due to these changes, we are also updating our Privacy Policy. Most importantly, we will be changing the way your IP address and search term are shared with our search partners. Your privacy remains important to us and we will still take steps such as using a secure encrypted connection to keep your data safe. You can read the whole policy on the Privacy page.
These changes will be introduced gradually over the autumn of 2023.
What will never change is our commitment to the climate. We will still spend 100% of our profits on tree planting and climate action, produce enough solar energy to power all searches twice over, and plant and protect the right trees in the right places.
Frequently asked questions
Why are these changes happening?
We are diversifying our search partners to keep up with a competitive and rapidly changing industry, improve your search and ad quality, and ultimately to have a greater climate impact. Partnering with larger search providers helps Ecosia stay profitable and competitive, so we can keep planting and protecting trees far into the future.
Why is my personal counter gone?
We want to highlight the impact of collective climate action and focus away from individual impact. This means that your personal counter will be gone while we work on new ways of highlighting our collective impact as a community.
Traditionally, individual carbon footprints have been used by Big Oil to distract from the real climate culprits. That’s why we will be shifting our focus to collective action and the systemic changes it enables.
How does the Privacy Policy change impact me? Do you still protect my data?
While we will be making changes to the data we share with our search partners Google and Microsoft Bing, your privacy is still important to us. Through setting your cookie preferences on the Settings page, you can choose your level of personalization on Ecosia. We also never compile your data across platforms and always protect your searches with a securely encrypted connection.
To read about how we protect your privacy in more detail, check out our Privacy Policy.