Privacy policy
At Qwant, transparency, security, and the protection of your personal data have always been an absolute priority. Accordingly, the purpose of this document is to inform you about the type of data we collect, why we collect it, and how we manage it, as well as about your privacy rights and the way in which you can exercise these rights.
This Privacy Policy applies to the website www.qwant.com and to the Qwant Junior service (www.qwantjunior.com) (the “Site”) accessible from your computer, your tablet and your smartphone (the “Device”). This policy is intended to govern the processing of personal data of all “Users” accessing the Site. It also governs the processing related to the use of the search engine and its new features (the “Services”).
You may not be subject to all the processing operations mentioned below. Indeed, as the new features are not accessible to all Users, certain processing operations are carried out only with your consent and/or upon the creation of your user account. (See “Why does Qwant process your data and use cookies”)
Qwant, located at 42 avenue de la Porte de Clichy 75017, Paris, acts as data controller within the meaning of Article 4.7 of the GDPR. You may contact the Data Protection Officer (the “DPO”) at the following address: dpo@qwant.com
Table of contents
Why Qwant processes your data and uses cookies?
Qwant remains at all times your search engine that preserves your privacy, without targeted advertising or retention of your search history, thereby guaranteeing neutral and unfiltered results, without using advertising cookies on your Device. Details on the processing of your data are available in the “Without consent” processing table. Qwant offers its users several new ways of using its Services.
If you wish to receive personalised advertising based on your interests or your searches, you may consent to the use of advertising, analytics or personalisation cookies when creating your account. Details on these processing operations and their purposes are available in the “With consent” processing table. If you do not wish to, you simply need to refuse them when consent is collected and through our cookie manager.
What Data is concerned by processing on our Site?
| CATEGORY OF DATA | DATA CONCERNED | RETENTION PERIODS |
User account data | In the relevant territories only, when you register on our site, you provide us with data concerning you such as your e-mail address, your marketing e-mail preference, and the language of your profile. We will also have access to the date of your last login, the date of acceptance of the Terms, the date of creation of your account, the update of your username, and the sending of transactional e-mails (the “Events”). When you use authentication via Google and Apple, you automatically authorise us to access, from these partners, your e-mail address in order to simplify the creation of your User Account. | 13 months from your last activity recorded on your User Account. If you request the deletion of your user account yourself, it will be deleted as soon as possible. The Events are deleted after 3 months. |
| Services Data | You provide us with the information when you respond to surveys/questionnaires. This data is used in order to improve Qwant’s services. No personal data is requested. | 13 months from your last activity recorded on your User Account. |
| Device data | If you consent to it, during your use of our Services, we automatically collect technical data: – Technical characteristics relating to the device you use to access our Services, such as the type of device (smartphone, computer, etc.) and the operating system (version, language, system date and time, etc.) – During your use of our Site, we automatically collect your search fields, as well as information relating to the way you use our Services, including your clicks or interactions with advertisements.
| By Microsoft: The IP address is retained in its entirety for 6 months. Cookie identifiers and other cross-session identifiers that are used to identify a particular account or device are retained for 18 months. By Qwant: The data is aggregated and retained by Qwant for 25 months. By Piwik Pro: This data is obfuscated and retained for 25 months by Piwik Pro. At the end of the retention periods mentioned, the data concerned is deleted in its entirety. |
If you have not consented to it or if you are not subject to it given the Services offered, we automatically collect technical data: – Technical characteristics relating to the device you use to access our services, such as the type of device (smartphone, computer, etc.) and the operating system (version, language, system date and time, etc.) – salted hash of the IP address (with a salt changing at the latest every three months), market segment of a query, the date and time of the visit, information on the country and the chosen language. During your use of our Site, we automatically collect your search fields, as well as information relating to the way you use our Services, including your clicks or interactions with advertisements. The search fields are processed only for statistical purposes, in pseudonymous form, without being linked to your identity. This data is collected for statistical purposes and is associated with a pseudonymous identifier, which cannot be cross-referenced with one another. | By Microsoft: This data is de-identified after 6 months. By Qwant: This data is aggregated and retained by Qwant for 25 months. By Piwik Pro: This data is obfuscated and retained for 25 months. At the end of the retention periods mentioned, the data concerned is deleted in its entirety. |
How is your data used by us and our Partners?
Only in the case of creating a User Account :
PURPOSES | DESCRIPTION | LEGAL BASIS | PARTNERS |
WITH YOUR CONSENT | |||
Sending you commercial communications from Qwant | In the relevant territories, if you have agreed to receive commercial communications from us (newsletters), we may use your Account Data in order to send them to you. Only Qwant may be the sender of these communications and will not commercialise them in any way. | Consent | Batch & Qwant |
Carrying out audience measurement | The use of Device Data makes it possible to better understand the way our Services are used, for example by identifying the content of our Services. In particular as part of a process of continuous improvement of the Services. | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Audience measurement” purpose. | Microsoft Advertising & Microsoft Clarity |
Allowing advertising partners to display personalised advertisements to you Cookies | Through our advertising platform, we authorise our advertising partners to use your Device Data, subject to your consent, in order to personalise the advertisements displayed on our Services and to assess their effectiveness. As a general rule, these partners act as data controllers, which means that they define the purposes and the methods of use of your data, ensure its confidentiality and guarantee its compliance with the laws and regulations in force. | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. Purpose “Personalisation of advertising and performance measurement”. | Microsoft Advertising |
Use of limited data to select advertising Cookies | The advertising presented to you may be based on limited data, such as your Device Data (for example, to limit the number of times a given advertisement is displayed to you). | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Use limited data to select advertising” purpose | Microsoft Advertising |
Measuring the performance of advertising Cookie | We use your Device Data in order to measure the way you interact with advertisements. This Data may be used to determine to what extent an advertisement has been effective for you or other users and whether the objectives of the advertisement have been achieved. This allows us to appreciate the relevance of advertising campaigns. | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Measure the performance of content.” purpose | Microsoft Advertising |
Understanding advertising through the combination of data from different sources. Cookie | Reports may be generated based on the combination of data sets (Device Data, aggregated data, statistical data) concerning your interactions and those of other users with advertising or non-advertising content, in order to identify common characteristics. | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Understand advertising through the combination of data from different sources.” purpose | Microsoft Advertising |
Using profiles to select personalised advertisements Cookies | We use your Device Data to present you with advertising based on your advertising profiles. They are created based on your activity on our Service or on other websites or applications (the content viewed). | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Use profiles to select personalised advertisements” purpose | Microsoft Advertising |
Creating profiles for personalised advertising Cookies | Information about your activity on these Services may be retained and combined with other information concerning you (Device Data). This information is then used to create or improve a profile concerning you (which may include possible interests and personal information). Your profile may be used (including at a later stage) to present advertisements that appear more relevant based on your possible interests, by this entity and other entities. | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Create profiles for personalised advertising” purpose. | Microsoft Advertising |
Measuring the performance of content. Cookies | Your Device Data may be used in order to determine whether the content presented to you and the way you interact with it can be used to determine whether content (non-advertising), for example, has reached its target audience and matches your interests. | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Measure the performance of content” purpose. | Microsoft Clarity |
Developing and improving services Cookies | Your Device Data is used in order to improve products and services and to create new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers. | Your consent expressed through our cookie manager. “Develop and improve services” purpose. | Microsoft Advertising |
| NON CONSENT | |||
| Management of your user account | In the relevant territories, if you have created an account, we use your User Account Data in order to manage your User Account, to allow you to log in to it and to send you the communications necessary for their proper functioning. | Performance of the contract | Batch, Qwant & Shadow. |
| Provision of a Summary following a User’s query. | When you use the artificial intelligence module during a query, we transmit to our partner the search keywords so that we can provide you with the Summary. | Performance of the contract | Mistral AI & European Perspective |
Display of standard (non-personalised) advertising. Outside the User Account | We use your Device Data in order to be able to offer you contextual advertising that depends exclusively on the keywords that are entered at the moment the advertisement is displayed. In this case, we do not display targeted advertising and do not integrate any cookie. | Legitimate interest | Our advertising Partner: Affilizz, AdMarketPlace and Microsoft |
| Statistics and audience measurements | We may use your Device Data when managing the Site, in an aggregated manner. This management requires the use of traffic and/or performance statistics without your identity being known to Qwant. These measurements are essential in order to analyse the operation of the Site and for the provision of our Services:
| Legitimate interest | Piwik & Qwant |
| So-called A/B Testing | Occasionally we may conduct so-called “A/B” tests. These tests allow us to compare different versions of our engine or of our features to see which one works best. The objective is to understand user preferences and to improve the usability and effectiveness of our search engine. In this context, we use only aggregated and anonymised data, such as the number of clicks on a feature or the time spent on a page, to assess the performance of the different versions tested. For these tests, Qwant’s provider retains a randomly generated anonymous identifier, retained for 6 months from the first visit. | “So-called A/B testing” purpose | Qwant & Piwik. |
| Measuring the effectiveness of certain contextual advertising results | In order to establish an aggregated measurement of the effectiveness of the advertisements provided by our partner Microsoft and to strengthen its means of detecting fraudulent clicks, Qwant may also transfer to it, for certain categories of advertisements, the following data if you click on an advertisement of the Microsoft network and return to the same Qwant results page: – The measurement of the time elapsed between your click on the advertisement and your possible return to the results page. This data shared with Microsoft is used exclusively for the purposes indicated above and cannot be used for other purposes. In particular, it cannot be used for advertising based on a user profile on Qwant or on third-party services. This data is transmitted to this partner within the European Union, and may be retained in accordance with the Microsoft Privacy Policy for a maximum period of 18 months. | Necessary for contract execution | Microsoft & Qwant |
| Provide the features necessary for the operation of our Services (processing of the user’s queries, display of advertisements, operation of the new features) | In order to provide you with relevant results when we do not ourselves have the answers to your queries, we have a partnership with Microsoft for the provision of our search results and the provision of contextual advertisements based on the keywords entered and your geographic region. For this purpose, Qwant may transfer to this partner the following pseudonymised data related to your query:
In addition, for the purposes of security and reliability of our partner’s services (detection of spam, automated activity, fraudulent clicks on advertisements, etc.), Qwant may also collect and transfer to this partner your full IP address. | Contract execution and legitimate interest. | Qwant & Microsoft & European Perspective (Staan) |
Detection of resource abuse Cookies | In order to detect bot traffic or any other traffic that may be considered as fraud or resource abuse, we communicate your Device Data, as well as your encrypted search fields, and signals such as “mouse movements”, “page scrolling” or even “clicks” to our partner Datadome. | Legitimate interest | Datadome |
| Technical supervision (APM) | For the purposes of supervising and ensuring the proper functioning of our Services, we retain for three days the called URL and the request. This data is used exclusively for the detection and diagnosis of technical incidents; it is neither cross-referenced with other processing operations nor used to identify you or to build a profile. | Legitimate interest | APM / Qwant |
| Management of dereferencing requests | When you wish to exercise your right to dereferencing, we use your Account data and/or the data you transmit to us within the form in order to respond to your dereferencing request. | Legitimate interest | Qwant |
| Management of information requests | When you wish to obtain information, we use your Account data and/or the data you transmit to us within the contact form in order to respond to your request. | Legitimate interest | Qwant |
Who are Qwant's Partners?
PiwikPro
We use Piwik Pro Analytics Suite to collect statistical data on the users of the Site on the basis of online identifiers. These statistics are produced in aggregate form, based on metrics such as the bounce rate and page views, without creating any individual profile or tracking browsing from one site to another. PiwikPro Analytics Suite is also used to create aggregated data sets relating to the use of our site, as part of the processing necessary for the proper functioning of the site.
Microsoft
Qwant has recently launched a new search experience and works in partnership with Microsoft in order to explore the way you use and interact with our Services. Thus, with this in mind, Qwant undertakes to collect only the information necessary to improve your search experience and to offer you targeted advertisements, based on your preferences, while leaving you the choice of whether or not to consent to this collection and sharing of data, with the possibility of revoking this consent at any time.
For more information on the way Microsoft collects and uses your data, consult the Microsoft Privacy Policy and Microsoft Clarity
Batch
We work in collaboration with Batch in order to ensure the efficient management of your account and to guarantee its proper functioning, for transactional e-mails and, when you consent to it, in the management of our marketing e-mail campaigns.
We do not transmit to Batch any data other than that indicated within “User Account Data”.
Shadow SAS
Shadow acts as a processor for the purposes of maintaining our identity and access management solution. Shadow acts on our instructions and solely on our behalf; accordingly, it accesses your data only to carry out this task and makes nos use of it for its own purposes.
How are your data used for advertising purposes?
Collection via Microsoft Advertising and Microsoft Clarity
Only in the case where you decide to create a User account and have consented, through our cookie manager, to Microsoft using cookies for advertising purposes, in that case Microsoft may exploit the advertising spaces on our Services. Microsoft will then put these advertising spaces up for sale via a real-time bidding process, allowing the highest bidding buyers to access them.
By accepting this use, Microsoft may collect from our Services information concerning the advertising spaces sold through them, as well as your Device Data. This data could be combined with other information from your browsing in order to present you with personalised advertisements while you browse our services and third-party services.
If you wish to learn more about the use of your data by Microsoft Advertising, you can go to their privacy policy here.
Furthermore, regarding Bing search queries, Microsoft de-identifies the stored queries by deleting the entire IP address after 6 months, as well as the cookie identifiers and other cross-session identifiers that are used to identify a particular account or device after 18 months.
Finally, if you refuse the cookies in our cookie manager, Microsoft will collect only the Device Data as indicated above. If you initially consented to the use of cookies for advertising purposes by Microsoft but subsequently change your choice, any collection of information concerning you by Microsoft will be immediately stopped.
Our Advertising Partners
We work with several advertising partners in order to offer you our advertisements. As a general rule, these partners act as data controllers, which means that they themselves define the purposes and the methods of use of your data, ensure its confidentiality and guarantee its compliance with the laws and regulations in force.
When you visit one of our advertisers’ advertisements, you may yourself object to the processing of your data by these partners by going to their privacy policies.
Qwant Junior
Qwant Junior is a version of our search engine designed for younger users. This policy also applies to Qwant Junior. This section aims to explain to younger users what we do, and what we do not do, when it is used
On Qwant Junior, we do not show any advertising and we do not create any profile. We do not track users’ browsing from one site to another.
To understand how the search engine is used and to improve it, we count general information anonymously, such as the number of page views. These measurements do not make it possible to know who the user is.
It is not necessary to create an account to use Qwant Junior; we do not ask for any personal information to use it.
If you do not want this information to be counted, you can refuse it at any time using the button provided for that purpose. For any questions, you can write to us at dpo@qwant.com.
What are your rights and how to exercise them?
In accordance with the French Data Protection Act (loi Informatique et Libertés), as well as the GDPR, you have the following rights over your personal data:
- The right to access your processed data in an understandable format,
- The right to rectify and update erroneous or incomplete data,
- The right to erasure if the data is no longer necessary for the initial purpose, when you have withdrawn your consent on which the processing of the data is based, when the data is subject to unlawful processing, or when the data must be erased to comply with a legal obligation,
- The right to object to your data being used for the purposes of commercial prospecting or for other purposes based on our respective interests,
- The right to the portability of your data, that is, to ask Qwant to communicate the data in a structured, commonly used and interoperable machine-readable format.
These rights are exercised by a request to the following e-mail address: dpo@qwant.com
You may also exercise your rights by post to the DPO at the following address:
Data Protection Officer
42 avenue de la Porte de Clichy
75017, Paris
Furthermore, you may submit a complaint to the data protection authority of your country (for France, this is the CNIL – www.cnil.fr).
We may also be led to modify or update this policy. Any modification will be posted on this page and/or in the other places deemed relevant, so as to keep you informed.
- Mise à jour : 20/08/2026