Ecosia adds “contractually forced” Microsoft Clarity tracking (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/clarity/setup-and-installation/about-clarity | privacy faq : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/clarity/faq#privacy), which will record the behaviour of users on the website. Recording clics, size, and more.
They will also add an optional Google setting. Enabling the cookie will allow to get search results from Google, but also to get tracked by Google.
Optional Microsoft advertising tracking is still a thing, tho it may not be necessary if Bing can get a fingerprint and behaviour of the user in real time…
This may be the final flow for Ecosia for me. Unless somehow the Microsoft Clarity can be private… But I don’t think so.
I just started the trial the other day and set it as my default browser. So far, I feel like the results are better than DDG and it feels cleaner/better organized. It has cool customizations that I’ll probably never touch.
It’s honestly gonna hurt to go back. But not as much as the pricetag. Maybe it should be lumped into a suite of some sort.