Cliqz browser with tracking protection is now available for all major operating systems

Munich; 04 September 2016: The Cliqz anti-tracking function is now available in all versions of the Cliqz browser – following Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, now iOS. Cliqz’s anti-tracking system is a proprietary development of the Munich-based Cliqz GmbH. With the help of statistical methods, it offers high-precision protection against trackers. The Cliqz browser can be downloaded free of charge from the website of Cliqz GmbH: https://cliqz.com/download

“Our studies show the extent to which data from Internet users can be intercepted. Everybody can do something to protect his or her data. To make tracking protection available to everyone, we have designed the function used in our browser in such a way that it does not require any configuration,” said Jean-Paul Schmetz, the founder of Cliqz.

Alarming magnitude

According to our study “Tracking the Trackers” (with data from September 2015), trackers collect insecure data in over three quarters of page loads – intentionally or not. Cliqz defines data on the basis of which individual users could be identified and tracked through the web as insecure.

In a new survey, we examined how the two largest tracking companies developed on year later. Google and Facebook dramatically increased their tracking power.

Year:              2016               2015
Google:        68.6%              62.4%
Facebook:     37,2%             23.1%

Data basis:   Page loads from Cliqz users during one week, end of September = 100%.

Tracking protection
Cliqz anti-tracking protection does something more than just block cookies. Cliqz uses statistical methods and spots any piece of data that could be used to identify and track individual users. Cliqz overwrites these data before they can be sent to a third party by tracking scripts.

Browser with anonymous search engine
A new type of search engine has been integrated into Cliqz. When information is input into the address bar, website suggestions appear almost in real-time – without taking a detour that leads through separate search results. Because the search is done completely anonymous by the Cliqz quick search engine, users can protect their privacy. Cliqz offers a counter-concept to those of search engine providers that store search data and use data from other sources to compile personal dossiers.

Browser with integrated search engine
A new type of search engine has been integrated into Cliqz for Android. When information is input into the address bar, boxes containing suggested websites will appear almost simultaneously. Just click a box and you are sent to the place where you want to be – without taking a detour that leads through separate search results. Wrong page? Just swipe to the next page and the one after it.

Because the Cliqz quick search engine displays relevant boxes as you type each letter, you frequently have the right search result even before you have finished typing. It takes just a few keystrokes to obtain the exact result you want. Popular or frequently visited website addresses are even automatically supplemented. In addition, Cliqz intelligently includes entries in the browser chronicle. Websites and content can be found in a snap as a result.

Cliqz displays useful information like weather forecasts, flight status, exchange rates, news headlines and football scores in smart results directly in the browser. Even more, users get all of these benefits even when the data link is poor.

Cliqz’s quick search is based on search engine technology developed by Cliqz GmbH itself. This technology works in tandem with a web index that the company also developed, independently of all other providers. The Cliqz quick search is designed for searches with navigation purposes and brings users directly to their goal more than 80 percent of the time. For more comprehensive searches about a term, product or topic (exploratory searching), Cliqz will directly connect users to conventional search engines – they just have to click the fourth box. Google is the default supplementary search engine. Users can also select a different one if they want.

Cliqz stands for privacy
The entire architecture used by Cliqz is based on the principle of privacy by design. The critical factor is the difference between usage data and user data. Cliqz servers store only anonymous, statistical usage data. Cliqz does not collect user data and any data that could be used to draw any conclusions about the Internet usage behaviour of individual users or individuals.

Transparent and open
The entire Cliqz browser is based on open source browser technologies (Cliqz for Windows, Mac and Linux and iOS on Firefox; Cliqz for Android on Lightning). Even the software code of the Cliqz applications is open source and is publicly available to anybody as a result. This is also the case for the Cliqz browser, the search engine and the human web technology used for the creation of the web index. As a result, anyone can see for himself or herself that Cliqz does not collect a single bit of personal data.