Brave, the company behind the eponymous web browser focused on protecting user privacy, has announced its acquisition of the technologies from the now-defunct search engine Cliqz. The innovations from Cliqz are intended to be used for creating a new search engine that is closely integrated with the browser and does not track visitors. This search engine aims to preserve privacy and will develop with community involvement.
The community will not only be able to participate in building the search index but also in creating alternative ranking models to prevent censorship and biased presentation of materials. To select the most relevant content, Cliqz uses a model based on the analysis of anonymous query logs and clicks made by users in the browser. Participation in collecting such data will be optional. Along with the community, the Goggles system will also develop, which offers a domain-specific language for creating filters for search results. Users will be able to choose the filters they agree with and disable those they find unacceptable.
The funding for the search engine will come from advertising. Users will have two options — a paid access plan without ads and a free access plan with ads, for which user tracking will not be employed. Integration with the browser will allow for the transmission of preference information under user control and without compromising privacy, and will also enable features such as instant refinement of results as queries are typed. An open API will be provided for the integration of the search engine with non-profit projects.
It is worth noting that the Brave web browser is developed under the leadership of Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and former head of Mozilla. The browser is built on the Chromium engine, focuses on protecting user privacy, includes an integrated engine for blocking ads, can operate over Tor, provides built-in support for HTTPS Everywhere, IPFS, and WebTorrent, and offers an alternative subscription-based funding mechanism for publishers instead of traditional advertising. The project's code is distributed under the free MPLv2 license.
Interestingly, in the past, Mozilla attempted to integrate Cliqz into Firefox (Mozilla was one of the investors in Cliqz), but the experiment failed due to user dissatisfaction over data leakage. The issue was that to ensure the functionality of the built-in Cliqz extension, all data entered in the address bar was transmitted to server the third-party commercial company Cliqz GmbH, which gained access to information about the sites the user visited and the queries entered in the address bar. It was claimed that the data was transmitted anonymously and was not linked to the user, but companies are known for an IP address the user's data, and it is impossible to be sure that the association with the IP address is removed, the data does not remain in logs, or is not secretly used to determine preferences.
Source: opennet.ru
