Ghostery is Acquired by Cliqz!
February 15, 2017 – BY GHOSTERY TEAM
Hello Ghosterians,
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. Cliqz’s marquee product is its desktop browser, whose built-in quick search and anti-tracking features empower users to quickly and safely explore the internet without sharing personal information or search queries with outside companies. This unique technology is powered by the Cliqz Human Web, a revolutionary way for a collective of users to contribute anonymous statistical data to improve the relevancy and safety of advanced Cliqz privacy features. Ghostery proudly joins this state-of-the-art browser and the rest of the Cliqz product suite to set a new standard in privacy protection. Additionally, as part of this acquisition, Ghostery and Cliqz will continue to work closely with our previous parent company, Evidon, to help the organization support its industry-leading Digital Governance solutions by continuing to provide the same aggregated tracker data that we have previously.
What does this mean for Ghostery users?
First, rest assured that Ghostery will remain an independent product and that the same passionate (and uncommonly attractive) product team committed to its success will be joining the Cliqz family as a subsidiary company. Second, to put it simply, Ghostery is about to become smarter, more powerful, and easier to use. The Cliqz anti-tracking technology is a truly revolutionary solution that uses algorithmic blocking that doesn’t require a blocklist, a feature we will integrate into Ghostery as soon as we possibly can. Third, we are making Ghostery immediately available on the Cliqz browser, so if you want to see this chocolate-and-peanut-butter relationship between algorithmic and blocklist anti-tracking in action, you can check it out right now. Finally, Ghostery data collection will remain the same for all existing users, will be strengthened by Cliqz’s best-in-class privacy practices, and will be done in accordance with Germany data privacy laws, the strictest in the world. While data collection will remain the same, we have updated our privacy statements to reflect the change of ownership, which you can see here.
What’s next for Ghostery?
We will be working closely with the Cliqz team to immediately start exploring new concepts and opportunities, many of which you’ll see us experimenting with in our product in the coming months. Among these will be the trial implementation of the Human Web as the infrastructure that we use to collect data to improve our own products. It’s important to underscore how cutting-edge this technology is and the importance it plays in collecting data safely and responsibly from users in a way that completely guarantees their anonymity and privacy. If you’d like to dig into the weeds and learn more about how the Human Web works, you check out the open-source code for it here.
Where do Ghostery and Cliqz go from here?
The integration of Ghostery and Cliqz technology will set a new benchmark in consumer privacy protection in the immediate future and beyond. As we look forward, Ghostery will play a critical part in Cliqz’s mission to build an internet that has privacy built into its DNA, puts the needs of the user first, and provides the critical infrastructure needed for the business models that drive our digital economies. In the process, we are going to be testing some bold, forward-thinking ideas that could reshape the foundation of how the internet works. As always, we’re eager to invite you, the user, to join us in this process and actively shape these ideas as we test and build them. If you’d like to help us in this, please join our beta group or email us directly (ghostery@ghostery.com) with your comments and feedback.
Ghostery and Cliqz are excited to start this journey together to build a better, more private internet. We hope you are, too.
Happy Surfin’,
The Ghostery Team
