
Ghostery is Acquired by Cliqz - Aoyagi
https://www.ghostery.com/blog/ghostery-news/ghostery-acquired-cliqz/
======
ar0
I'm writing this using the Cliqz browser and I have to say I have been a very
happy user for a couple of weeks now. I like the search bar (I don't search in
German that often but still get quite relevant "instant" results in my
experience), the integrated tracking protection and just the overall look-and-
feel.

Personally, I also find it important that Cliqz is based on Firefox, other
than almost all the other new browser projects out there which are based on
Chromium. There is nothing wrong with Chromium, but I believe some choice /
friendly competition in rendering and JavaScript engines is important for the
overall well-being of the web.

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kayoone
Cliqz is run by a great team, the founder Jean-Paul Schmetz is an amazing
software engineer with a lot of experience (has been CTO of Burda Digital
since the mid-90ies and later went to Stanford to study CS) and they have very
high standards for software engineering and computer science.

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tpllaha
Well... when it comes to data privacy, I'd say better the Germans than the
Donald.

~~~
mhays
The Donald has easier access to data abroad than data in the US :)

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bjoern_cliqz
There is an official post on the blog of Cliqz as well:
[https://cliqz.com/en/magazine/cliqz-und-
ghostery](https://cliqz.com/en/magazine/cliqz-und-ghostery)

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wonks
"The Cliqz anti-tracking technology is a truly revolutionary solution that
uses algorithmic blocking that doesn’t require a blocklist..."

That sounds an awful lot like the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Privacy
Badger.

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cicloid
So, is this a good thing? Should I worry? While Mozilla is presented as a
shareholder of Cliqz. It appears to be a minority shareholder and the majority
shareholder seems to be a media company, for a Ad/Privacy blocker... I'm not
sure how to feel about it.

~~~
noquill
I think this is a great thing. I have been reading about Cliqz and what they
published [0], [1] and I believe they are quite serious about privacy, as a
matter of personal opinion, so serious I find it hard to draw a parallel
between them and any other player in the industry. If no personal identifiable
information is collected to start with, and as they call it, "privacy by
design" is guaranteed, then it really matters very little who is a
shareholder.

[0]
[http://www2016.net/proceedings/proceedings/p121.pdf](http://www2016.net/proceedings/proceedings/p121.pdf)
[1]
[http://josepmpujol.net/public/papers/big_green_tracker.pdf](http://josepmpujol.net/public/papers/big_green_tracker.pdf)

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kuekerino
I thought Ghostery was untrustworthy since they phone home and share data with
ad agencies even if you opt out of that option?

Did they change that?

------
heeren
Taking user privacy to next level

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frik
German Burda media is behind Cliqz.
[https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Burda-Tochter-
Cliqz-...](https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Burda-Tochter-Cliqz-
uebernimmt-Anti-Tracking-Dienst-Ghostery-3626680.html)

Edit:

Major shareholder: Burda media (Focus, Bunte, etc)

Minor shareholder: Mozilla

~~~
noquill
Mozilla is behind cliqz too: [https://blog.mozilla.org/press-
uk/2016/08/23/mozilla-makes-s...](https://blog.mozilla.org/press-
uk/2016/08/23/mozilla-makes-strategic-investment-in-cliqz-to-enable-privacy-
focused-search-innovation/)

~~~
aylons
Both these comments are literally in the first sentence of the OP:

"We are overjoyed to announce that the Ghostery extension and mobile browsers
have been acquired by Cliqz, a German company owned by Mozilla and Hubert
Burda Media that builds ground-breaking browser technologies to make the
internet more private and easier to use."

