Technical Support

Do you have problems with one of your Cliqz products and can’t find a solution within the frequently asked questions below? Send us a message to support[at]cliqz.com.

During working days, we usually reply within 48 hours.

You can also call us at +49 89 92503344.

The best time to reach us it between 11am and 5pm (CET) during working days.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Announcements

Cliqz is shutting down

Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the Cliqz browser as well as our search engine will be shut down in the next month.
We deeply regret that we will not be able to offer our users any more products in the future and would like to thank you for your support during the last years.
If you are looking for an alternative for Cliqz, we would like to recommend the privacy tool Ghostery (https://www.ghostery.com/). The privacy of the users is also a top priority for our colleagues

For more information about the ‘Why’ you can have a look here:
https://www.burda.com/en/news/cliqz-closes-areas-browser-and-search-technologies/

Thank you for helping us in the past to improve our Cliqz Browser.

Best regards from Munich

Your Cliqz Team

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Beta’ means that the product, in this case the Cliqz search engine, is still in the development stage and therefore not fully mature. In this phase we try to collect as much user feedback as possible and improve our Cliqz search engine on a daily basis. 

No, the Cliqz search engine can be accessed from any browser at cliqz.com

The beta phase is essential for us. We want to collect as much user feedback as possible to optimize our Cliqz search engine and to add new features. A beta phase is perfect for this. We can’t yet say when it will be completed, but we are aiming for the end of the year. 

At the moment we do not have Dark Mode, but we are working on it and want to offer it in the future. 

Unlike most other search engines – including Ecosia and DuckDuckGo – Cliqz does not obtain its results from the US search giants Google or Bing, but uses a search index of its own. Having more than two search indexes is crucial for diversity, fair competition and a healthy balance of power. 

Cliqz Browser is completely open source. The software code can be reviewed by anyone. We want to be as transparent as possible here. Many of the technologies developed by Cliqz, which operate in the background, are also open source and can be freely viewed. However, the search ranking technology itself is not open source, because otherwise it could easily be manipulated.

Cliqz GmbH is an independent GmbH.  

Hubert Burda Media is a shareholder of Cliqz. However, Cliqz operates independently of other Burda units and treats Burda’s own websites no different from other.  

 

For a more precise explanation: Our servers do not store any personal or individual-related information or data by which individual users could be identified. IP addresses and other critical data are automatically deleted. Statistical data about search entries are strictly separated from website visit statistics. Data is deleted and separated as soon as it reaches our servers. Conclusions about individual users through the combination of data from successive searches and/or website visits are excluded, as no session ID is stored. 

Google controls 94% of the search queries in Germany, which equals a monopoly. We believe that a company should not have so much power because it leaves a large scope for manipulation. We try to counteract this and create an alternative that is independent, fair, private and open.

  • Go to the Cliqz for Desktop download page with any browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge).
  • Click “Download” for Cliqz for Windows. This will initiate the download process.
  • If you use Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge, start the installation file directly after the download, by clicking execute. If you use another browser, you might have to download the installation file on your browser and then open it manually. Then click execute.
  • Now just confirm the Windows security warning with yes. We recommend closing all running programs prior to the installation.
  • Now, you see a welcome window. Click Install, to start the installation process.
  • Cliqz is now ready to be used. Open Cliqz by selecting the Icon on your desktop.
  • Cliqz is not yet your default browser and a note will tell you exactly that. To open all Hyperlinks with Cliqz, hit ‘yes’

Cliqz is based on the Firefox browser. Firefox stopped their support for Windows XP/Vista in April 2017 (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/52.0a2/system-requirements/) and we had to follow suit. For security reasons, we cannot provide older versions of Cliqz that are compatible with Windows XP/Vista.

We advise to update to a newer operating system. That said, there is a potential alternate: Firefox offers an Extended Support Release (ESR). While this browser version does not get any new features via updates, it receives the most important security updates (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/).

You can install the Cliqz extension for Firefox on ESR (https://addons.mozilla.org/downloads/latest/521900/addon-521900-latest.xpi?src=external-decliqzdotcom). Add an ad-blocker and HTTPS Everywhere, and you’ll end up with a similar package as the Cliqz browser.

  • Go to the Cliqz for Desktop download page with any browser (e.g. Apples Safari).
  • Click “Download” for Cliqz for Mac. A little window to open the file will pop-up. Choose “Open with Disk Image Mounter” and click ‘ok’. That’s how you download the installation file for Cliqz.
  • As soon as the download is finished, the so called disc-image (Cliqz.dmg) opens in a separate window. Drag the Cliqz logo into the program folder with your cursor. Note: If you don’t see that window, click on the file you just downloaded (Cliqz.dmg) to open it.
  • After you have dragged and dropped Cliqz into the programs folder, go into finder and look for Cliqz (or go to programs and find Cliqz there).
  • Add the Cliqz icon to your dock. Now you can access it more easily. To add it to your dock, open the programs folder and drag Cliqz to your dock.
  • Cliqz now is ready to be used. Open Cliqz by clicking the symbol on the dock.
  • When you use Cliqz for the first time you will be warned that you downloaded it from the internet. As you downloaded Cliqz from a safe source (e.g. our website or chip.de) you can click ‘open’.
  • Make Cliqz your standard browser, by confirming the option in the pop-up-notification. This means, that hyperlinks will now be opened with Cliqz by default.

“Top News” informs Cliqz users about the most important events of the day. All linked articles originate from respected and trustworthy news domains within the respective countries.

In order to determine the most relevant news for our users, we first collect and process all articles that were published by these sources, which we then compare among each other and form clusters around current events. The magnitude of these events, their presence on homepages of different news outlets and their time of publication results into a list of Top News, updated hourly to let you be on top of the news.

If you do not want to see news on the Cliqz Tab, you can deactivate them. To do so, click the gear-wheel symbol in the top right corner of the Cliqz Tab. This menu allows you to customize your Cliqz Tab according to your personal taste. You can deactivate the respective options (Most visited sites, Favorites, Search bar, News) by simply flipping the switch. The remaining elements will collapse to the center automatically.

Learn more about Top News on Cliqz Tab.

We are currently not officially supporting Linux, but if you are adventurous, please feel free to try our internal build or build it yourself, the steps can be found here.

  • Cliqz automatically updates by default. However, you can also start an update manually any time you like.
  • Windows: Click on the browser menu icon in the top right corner of the browser and click ‘help’. Then, click ‘about Cliqz’
  • Mac: Click Cliqz up in the window and then click ‘about Cliqz’
  • The window ‘about Cliqz’ opens and automatically starts looking for updates. If there are updates available, they will be downloaded automatically.
  • If the updates are ready to be installed, click the button ‘to finish the update, restart Cliqz’

Follow these five steps to set Cliqz as your default browser in Windows 10:

  1. Click the menu button in the top right corner of the browser window and select “Options”.
  2. In the “General” panel, click on “Make Default”. This will open the “Choose default apps screen” in the Windows settings app.
  3. Scroll down and click the entry under “Web browser”. It will say either “Choose your default browser” or the name of the current browser that is set as default.
  4. In the “Choose an app screen”, click Cliqz to set it as the default browser.
  5. Cliqz is now your default browser. Close the Settings window to save this change.

Tracking is very common online: trackers collect insecure data on three quarters of all web pages, data which enables the identification of the user and allows to track him through the web. Cliqz puts a halt to those practices. It overwrites your information, so that trackers cannot identify you. In the top right corner of the browser you can always see how many trackers are currently being blocked and learn more about those specific trackers.

In addition to that, Cliqz gives you full control over your data. Cliqz does not store personal data, everything stays on your device and under your control. In the transparency-dashboard you can see which data your browser works with and what happens to it. You can always have a look at the transparency dashboard by yourself. Just click the Cliqz-Symbol in the top of your browser (blue circle with black arrow) and choose ‘transparency-dashboard’. Alternatively, type about:transparency in your browser bar and hit enter.

Read more about our Anti-Tracking here.

Disclaimer: Currently the transparency dashboard only works in German. We’re working on an adequate translation.

Cliqz offers the Ghostery anti-tracking tool as a free add-on for the Cliqz desktop browser for Windows, macOS and Linux. You can install Ghostery via the “Security” menu (“Extended Privacy Control”) in the browser settings. Then you will find a small ghost (“Ghosty”) next to the URL bar. A click on it shows you an overview of the trackers found on the opened web page, which can then be blocked individually or all together.

Unlike Cliqz’s anti-tracking, in Ghostery all scripts and elements are permitted by default. You must take action and manually determine which of the hidden services on the visited Website you want to block. To make the decision easier, Ghostery provides some background information about the tracking elements found.

A count badge on the Ghostery icon indicates how many tracking services are active on the current page. The value is usually different from the number displayed in the Control Center (Q-Menu) of Cliqz because Ghostery indicates the number of tracking scripts found, while Cliqz shows the number of tracking requests. After clicking on the Ghostery icon, you will see a list of the trackers found, sorted by categories such as advertising, website analytics, social media, audio/video player, comments or customer interactions. There you can customize the settings for the respective page. Only you have full control over your data. Here you can find more information about the Ghostery integration.

Cliqz is the world’s first browser with an integrated fast-search-engine. When you enter queries, you will see suggestions for websites, which suit your input and ideally give you the required information.

Our independent index suggests up to three websites in real-time, which are chosen because of their relevance. That way, Cliqz makes it completely unnecessary to visit search engine’s result pages when you’re merely doing a navigational search.

It is of course possible that your query does not match any relevant results in our quick-search-window. That’s no problem, though, because you can always use a conventional search engine as a supplement for deeper research. To do that, there’s nothing to do but to hit Enter after you typed your query into the browser bar – you’re probably used to that by other browsers you used.

We have received reports from users who had issues playing videos on the Cliqz desktop browser.

Please try the following trouble-shooting:
Is your Flash Player up to date? (a program for streaming / playing multimedia content including videos, among others)
To download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, visit https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/.

– Is your Cliqz browser up to date?
To see what version of Cliqz you have on Windows, click on the menu icon in the top right corner of the browser window.

In the little window that opens, click on the questionmark icon “?” at the bottom (next to “Customize”). This will open a little menu that includes an item called “About Cliqz”. Click on it to see the current version of the browser, as well as further information.

On Mac, you can find the current version of Cliqz by clicking on the navigation item “Cliqz” in the top left corner of your screen. (Note: this is only visible, if Cliqz is open and the active program.) Next, select “About Cliqz”. This will open a little window with information including the current version number.

You can download the latest released version of Cliqz here.

– Is the website not allowing you to watch videos with enabled Anti-Tracking?

Please try the following:

  • Open the Control Center over the upper-right corner next to the address bar (the blue circle with the black arrow)
  • Switch off the Anti-Tracking.

Warning: With this settings you are not protected against trackers anymore. Do not forget to switch the Anti-Tracking on again after watching the video.

– Is the website loading the videos through not secure connections?

HTTPS Everywhere is an extension that aims to make connections to websites secure automatically (when possible). Normally, connections to websites would be made with the unencrypted HTTP protocol. This makes it possible for attackers to listening on, or even manipulate, the connection. To prevent this, many website operators also offer an encrypted connection over HTTPS.

You can temporarily disable HTTPS Everywhere. Click on the Q-Menu (the blue circle with a black mouse pointer), and where it says ‘Prefer HTTPS’, toggle the button to ‘OFF’.

If the video is still not playing after all – please send us the URL to the video through the Support form.

While browsing in a Forget Tab, visited pages will not be saved to the computer’s history and thus cannot be found via the library or the history results in the search. For more comprehensive privacy, please open websites in a Forget window. This will ensure that the following data will not be stored on the computer:

  • History: Visited pages will not be saved to the computer’s history and thus cannot be found via the library or the history results in the search.
  • Cookies: Cookies store information about, for example, page settings, logins and data that is used for plugins like Adobe Flash Player. In Forget Mode this information is not saved.
  • Form fields and search box entries: Text entered into text boxes or search functions on websites is forgotten instantly.
  • Passwords: Newly entered passwords will not be remembered either.
  • Download list: You can download and save files just like in Normal Mode. However, files downloaded in Forget Mode will not show in the downloads menu.
  • Temporary data: Temporary data and data required for offline usage cannot be saved in Forget Mode.

By the way, the data listed can also be removed from the computer after visiting a specific website in Normal Mode via the functions “Reload in Forget Mode” or “Always load in Forget Mode”. If you have opened the respective website in a normal tab or window, you can right-click on its tab to open the tab-menu and select one of the options.

    • “Always load in Forget Mode” automatically deletes the data listed above for this domain from the computer. The next time you visit the website, Cliqz will automatically open it in Forget Mode.
    • “Reload in Forget Mode” will ask for a confirmation to remove the data belonging to this domain from the computer:
      • “Yes” will delete all the data such as history, cookies and temporary data. Note: if you reload the page, some temporary data might be saved.
      • “No, keep data” will not delete them.

      If you visit the page again, it will open in Normal Mode.

We are happy to provide a checksum for the current browser version upon request. Please add the following information to your message:

  • Operating system (Windows, Mac or Linux)
  • Language (English or German)
  • Where would you like to download Cliqz from? (for example or website cliqz.com, another website, etc….)

By the way, if you are interested to learn what a checksum is, Wikipedia offers a general description, among others.

Cliqz for mobile contains an integrated quick-search that allows you to go directly to your destination without any detours. In addition, we do not collect any personal data unlike other search engines. Thus, by using Cliqz you are protecting your online privacy.

“News” informs Cliqz users about the most important events of the day. All linked articles originate from respected and trustworthy news domains within the respective countries.

In order to determine the most relevant news for our users, we first collect and process all articles that were published by these sources, which we then compare among each other and form clusters around current events. The magnitude of these events, their presence on homepages of different news outlets and their time of publication results into a list of Top News, updated hourly to let you be on top of the news.

If you do not want to see news on the Cliqz Tab, you can deactivate them. To do so, open the general settings of the Cliqz app and turn off “Show news” in the Cliqz Tab section.

Learn more about News on Cliqz Tab.

We offer more than one result. By swiping from left to right, you can see more suggestions.

We try to anticipate your search to give you suitable results as quickly as possible.

If you are looking for an APK file for our Android browser, you can find the respective download links for Android operating systems 5.0.2 and older, or all newer versions on our Cliqz for Android page.

Integrated trackers record user activity on almost all websites. Tracking Protection prevents data that could identify individual users from being sent to these tracking services. The number indicates the number of locked records on the active page.

To disable Tracking Protection, click on the Privacy Indicator to the left of the address bar and move the slider next to ‘Tracking Protection’ from right to left.

To disable the Adblocker, click on the Privacy Indicator to the left of the address bar and move the slider next to ‘Adblocker ‘ from right to left.

While browsing in ‘Forget Tab’, Cliqz does not store the following data on your device:

  • History: Visited pages will not be saved to the computer’s history and thus cannot be found via the library or the history results in the search.
  • Cookies: Cookies store various information, such as page settings, logins, and data that is used for plugins like Adobe Flash Player.
  • Form fields and search box entries: Text entered into text boxes or search functions on websites is forgotten instantly.
  • Passwords: Newly entered passwords will not be remembered.
  • Download list: You can download and save files just like in normal browsing mode. However, files downloaded in Forget Tab will not show in the download menu.
  • Temporary data: Temporary data and data required for offline usage cannot be saved in Forget Tab.

The Cliqz Tracker library consists of over 2200 trackers and 4500 scripts; however, new advertising and marketing technologies are being created all the time. To keep our users as protected as possible, as our users encounter new trackers, we’re adding them to our list. But it is possible to encounter a new tracker that Cliqz is not blocking.

To delete your browsing history, follow these steps:

Go to Settings > Privacy > Data Management > Choose from the list which data you want to delete > Click ‘clear private data’ -> confirm that the data should be deleted.

We try to anticipate your search in order to provide you with suitable results as fast as possible. We have developed our own quick search to show you the most relevant result as soon as possible.

If you don’t find the result you are looking for, just search with one of the 3 ‘Additional Search Engines’ at the bottom of the page.

The Cliqz Browser for iOS is compatible for iOS version 11.4 and later.

The Cliqz Browser contains an integrated quick search that allows you to go directly to your destination without any detours. In addition, we do not collect any personal data unlike other search engines and browsers. Thus, by using Cliqz you are protecting your online privacy.

We also provide you with our anti-tracking technology which helps to keep your data safe. This technology avoids your data being tracked by third party trackers. This is done by altering strings which are unique to your browser. It protects you from usual tracking methods like canvas fingerprinting.

“News” informs Cliqz users about the most important events of the day. All linked articles originate from respected and trustworthy news domains within the respective countries. In order to determine the most relevant news for our users, we first collect and process all articles that were published by these sources, which we then compare among each other and form clusters around current events. The magnitude of these events, their presence on homepages of different news outlets and their time of publication results into a list of Top News, updated hourly to let you be on top of the news.

Access to the camera is necessary if you want to use the online version of Skype or the chat system of Google or Facebook as web version or if you want to upload photos, for example to Instagram.

The access to the location is used, for example, if you want to use Google Maps to determine the location in your browser.

With the Siri shortcut you can open a new tab in the Cliqz Browser by voice command. Just specify the term you want to use, e.g. ‘Open new tab’. As soon as you say this command to Siri, Cliqz will open a new tab.

Due to recent changes on the part of Firefox, on the basis of which Cliqz exists, it is unfortunately no longer possible for us to have our built-in quick search in Cliqz for Firefox. We also had to remove other features from the extension, such as our anti-tracking technology.

The good news is that you can always switch to Cliqz browser, which offers all these and other useful features. More information and the possibility to download Cliqz can be found at this link.

To avoid installing a virus, malware, or adware on your computer, make sure to download Cliqz only from trusted sources such as the Cliqz website, chip.de, Mozilla’s add-on page for the Firefox add-on and of course the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store for the mobile browser.

Cliqz for Firefox, the extension for the Firefox Browser, can be downloaded and installed directly via our Cliqz Website. You can also find it in the Mozilla Add-ons Store.

Open the Firefox Browser and follow these steps:

Install Cliqz for Firefox via the Mozilla Add-ons Store
Choose a way to go to the Mozilla Add-ons Store:

Both will take you to (different) views of the add-ons store where you can search for “Cliqz”.

Click on „+ Add to Firefox“ or on „Install“ (The button titles depend on what view you are on, but they both do the same thing.)

Cliqz will be downloaded and installed and is ready to go right away!

You should now see the Cliqz “Q” icon to the right of the address bar. Click on the icon to open the Cliqz menu and see the settings options.

Install Cliqz for Firefox via the Cliqz Website
Go to Cliqz for Firefox (Add-on) and click on the button Free Download.

  • A small alert window will open and ask for permission to download Cliqz. Click on “Allow“.
  • Cliqz will download and you will be asked to start the installation. Click on “Install”.
  • The successful installation will be confirmed with another little notification. Done!

You should now see the Cliqz “Q” icon to the right of the address bar. Click on the icon to open the Cliqz menu and see the settings options.

Enjoy safe searching and surfing with Cliqz!

Please close and restart Firefox. If this does not solve the problem, remove the extension and repeat the installation. If you still experience a problem, please contact us. We will help you personally!

When the add-on has been installed successfully, you will see the Cliqz icon on the right side of the Firefox address bar.

In Firefox you can surf in private mode; this means, for example, websites you visit in private mode are not added to your history. Cliqz changes nothing about this.

In private mode, Cliqz only shows you results from the already existing history. To use Cliqz in the private mode, simply open a new private window in Firefox.

Cliqz for Firefox is optimized for usage in Germany and German language. You can try the extension in other languages and countries, but the quality of the website suggestions doesn’t reach the same level. Furthermore, some features such as smart Cliqz are missing.

We are working hard to support more countries and languages. Check back soon for updates.

Open Firefox → click the Firefox menu button on the right → select „Add-ons/ Extensions“ → your version number will be displayed.

To remove Cliqz, do the following: Open Firefox → click the Firefox menu button on the right and choose “Add-ons” → choose “Extensions” → in the line with “Cliqz“ click “Remove“ → restart Firefox.

Your reasons for removing Cliqz matter to us. Please leave feedback or email us at feedback@cliqz.com.

Windows: Open Firefox → click “Firefox” → select “Help” → select “About Firefox” → your version number will be displayed.

Mac: Open Firefox → click “Firefox” → select “About Firefox” → your version number will be displayed.

Some Firefox add-ons affect the function of Cliqz. To ensure that Cliqz runs smoothly, you should deinstall or deactivate the following add-ons:

  • Add to Search Bar
  • AutoPager
  • British English Dictionary
  • DuckDuckGo Plus
  • Ecosia
  • InstantFox
  • Omnibar
  • Quick Search QuickDrag
  • Rikaichan Linkification
  • StumbleUpon

To deinstall or deactivate those add-ons, just open the Firefox menu (top right on your browser screen) and go to the “Add ons”.
If you notice further incompatibilities, please notify us via the feedback form above.

We look at every feedback and will improve Cliqz accordingly. To contact us, click the Cliqz icon on the right side of the Firefox address bar and select “feedback”. This opens a web form. Your input will be sent directly to us, including automatically generated information about the version of Cliqz, Firefox and the operating system that you are using.

Alternatively, you can also contact us by email. If you email us, please include the information about the version of Cliqz, Firefox and the operating system you are using (see below for an explanation of how to determine versions).

A fully funded start-up, Cliqz was able to focus on the development of our technologies and on increasing user satisfaction when starting out. Only recently we began building our business model “Cliqz Offers”.

“Cliqz Offers” is a new service aiming to provide users with selected offers that match specific current interests. The function is part of the browser and gets triggered by pre-defined conditions only. Certain search queries or website visits, for example, could prompt the function.

Unlike other similar services, the detection of user intents does not happen on external servers, but solely inside your browser. As a result, your data does not leave your computer and remains under your control.

Cliqz GmbH is a start-up based in Munich with 118 creative professionals from 33 countries. Our goal is to make navigating the net fast, simple and clearly structured.

The company is owned by Burda and Mozilla. Cliqz operates independently from other Burda units and does not exchange any data with them. Websites owned by Burda are not treated any differently from other websites (e.g. with respect to search ranking or anti-tracking). In February 2017 the Cliqz GmbH has acquired the Ghostery brand and Ghostery’s consumer operations.

Do you have a question or feedback?





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