Ghostery has been bought by the developer of a privacy-focused browser

[Jack]

German company Cliqz will integrate Ghostery, but the plugin will continue as a standalone product

Germany company Cliqz, which makes a privacy-focused browser of the same name, announced this morning that it has acquired popular anti-tracking and ad-blocking plugin Ghostery in an all-cash deal. A spokesperson for Cliqz, which is part-owned by Mozilla, said that the Ghostery plugin would continue to be available as a product for other browsers, but that the company hoped the acquisition would encourage users to try Cliqz.

“We want to use it to leverage internationalization and reach a larger user base,” Cliqz’s Thomas Konrad told The Verge. He added that the acquisition of Ghostery meant its data would move to German jurisdiction — a country known for its stringent data protection laws. “Basically Germany has much higher standards,” said Konrad. “It makes it more difficult for secret services to get a permit [to look at users’ data].”

Other tech companies have sought out the benefits of Germany consumer laws before. In November 2015, for example, Microsoft opened up new data centers in the country under the “data trustee” model (the centers are run by a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary).

Read more: Ghostery has been bought by the developer of a privacy-focused browser

 

[DracusNarcrym]

Uh... Wasn't Ghostery already bought by a company once?

So now it's been bought over twice?

What's this, passing the ball around like soccer? Poor Ghostery.

 

[mal1]

Two interesting pieces of news in this story! Ghostery was sold to a German company called Cliqz. Cliqz, which is owned by Mozilla (and Hubert Burda media), produces a privacy-focused web browser.


Someone needs to do a review of this Cliqz browser!

 

[Ink]

Reading from TC, it doesn't sound that good and would rather continue using the existing Ghostery app.
Private search browser Cliqz buys Ghostery ad-tracker tool

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--- Begin Quote ---
“Human Web is built on privacy-by-design-principles. It rules out that any PII [personally identifiable information] is stored on Cliqz’s or Ghostery’s servers,” he adds. “Cliqz will provide Evidon with a subset of the data that enables Evidon to continue their B2B services.

“Basically, Evidon will only get aggregated data about trackers (a “map of trackers“). Which trackers are on a website? How prevalent is the tracker in the web? No information about users whatsoever. Cliqz and Ghostery will never share any data about individual users with anyone. (Even if we wanted, we wouldn’t be able to, as we don’t store any.)”

Cliqz has previously discussed its plans to monetize this pro-privacy approach and usage of its free, anti-tracking browser and search products via a companion Cliqz Offers app — that will be designed to broadcast all offers to all users so Cliqz does not need to track individuals’ browsing habits to power ad targeting. Rather tracking of browsing habits occurs locally, on a user’s device, allowing for the tech to display pertinent offers to users without Cliqz itself needing to be party to its users’ browsing behavior.
--- End Quote ---​

Human Web can be disabled.
CLIQZ Browser + Search Engine - Android Apps on Google Play

 

[Dirk41]

Nice share indeed
Every day a new privacy focuses browsers is created

There isn't cliqz in my App Store, Only American it says

As far as PP is concerned , in my little experience , only ublock origin as the best PP.

I was about to try ghostery , now I don't know

Devs have to sell something to gain something

 

[Arequire]

Putting aside the fact that it's basically a Firefox clone, I like the color scheme and slight ui difference better. Since this is a GERMAN company, even though it's owned by Mozilla, are they subject to EU internet privacy laws, rather than US internet privacy laws?

I'm pretty sure they're under EU law. If Mozilla were to move said company and all their assets to the US or a US territory then they'd be under US law.