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Comment by dewey | Hacker News Reader

Was looking at that Cliqz company out of curiosity and while browsing their job page (https://cliqz.com/en/about/careers/campaign-manager) saw this:

"MyOffrz is opening a brand new marketing discipline: Browser Based Performance Marketing. This innovative technology makes it possible to show users discounts, special offers and valuable information with true added value within the browser. As a 100% subsidiary of Cliqz GmbH..."

"These include independent search engine, browser and privacy technologies as well as new techniques for responsible advertising and statistical data collection for the benefit of all users."

Seems a bit odd for a company that brands itself as a privacy search engine.

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> Seems a bit odd for a company that brands itself as a privacy search engine.

Cliqz is nothing but a parasite disguised as a pro-privacy product, funded by Hubert Burda Media (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Burda_Media).

Their strategy to move into the couponing/voucher market comes as no surprise, since injecting ads (which this basically is) is a very lucrative business - and they have the customer base to do so. The line between malware and "legitimate" browser (extension) becomes increasingly blurred.

Their entire premise is that they can do an ad-financed product with less invasive tracking. Obviously, that involves advertising people.

Tracking and targeting are just two possible reasons why people dislike ads. Invasiveness is another one - think popups, popunders, layers, interstitials, pre-/postrolls etc.

So even if they don't do "tracking", injecting ads surely isn't something the average user "signed up for" when downloading the browser.

Sure, I totally agree. Doesn't change that that's the business Cliqz is trying to build. They're promising to be better on the privacy front than other ad-based products (we'll see how they actually do, I'm somewhat skeptical), not to be "distraction-free" or "non-targeted". That might not be the product you, I or many other people want.

Hey, I work at Cliqz. As mentioned in another thread; we have an advertising model, but it does not rely on any personal data. We have also experimented with paid products and we would love for it to be a viable option. Unfortunately, experience suggests that very few people are willing to pay (we would love to be wrong and will keep considering this possibility). So we are exploring many options; what they all have in common though is privacy by design. We do not, and do not want to collect personal data.

Hey, I work at Cliqz. We have an advertising model, but it does not rely on any personal data. We have also experimented with paid products and we would love for it to be a viable option. Unfortunately, experience suggests that very few people are willing to pay. So we are exploring many options; what they all have in common though is privacy by design. We do not, and do not want to collect personal data.

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