Legal information
Policy for the protection of your personal data
A search engine that respects your privacy
At Qwant, we don’t know who you are. No targeting, no retention of your search history: your age, gender and interests belong only to you. With each request, you start from a blank page.
An open and neutral web at your service
By not tracking our users, our search engine offers you a panoramic view of the web and guarantees neutral results, without filter bubbles. It does not lock you into your certainties. Your previous searches will not influence the next ones!
Browse without targeted advertising!
Qwant does not place any advertising cookies on your browser. In this way, the advertising that will appear in your navigation will be linked to your search keywords, and not to your user profile.
Your data is not a currency
It is common to hear today that data is the new “black gold”. Not at Qwant. We do not sell your data to third parties, for advertising or any other use.
A made-in-France alternative that applies European legislation
Anxious to respect the French and European legislative framework, Qwant rigorously applies the GDPR. We respect fundamental rights, including the right to be forgotten which offers you the possibility to obtain the erasure of your data.
How does Qwant protect your privacy?
When you use Qwant as a search engine, we do not place any advertising cookies on your browser and we do not look at what you have personally searched for previously. During a request, it is immediately pseudonymized using the methods set out in this Privacy Policy.
We also undertake to make every effort to guarantee the security and confidentiality of our users’ personal data and in particular to prevent this data from being altered, erased or accessed by unauthorized third parties. The URL of Qwant includes the mention HTTPS which signals to users that they communicate their data securely through the TLS protocol. Technically, TLS assures visitors that their data cannot be intercepted when it travels over the network fraudulently or accidentally. In addition, the padlock in front of the Qwant URL on most browsers certifies that you are browsing a secure site.
If you change your browsing settings (language, activation or deactivation of options), a cookie may be installed on your browser, exclusively for the purpose of storing these settings. You have the option to delete cookies from your browser. For more information, please see our cookie policy.
However, the provision of a search engine by nature requires certain data processing. The purpose of the following section of this Privacy Policy is therefore to explain in detail the cases in which we need to process information about you, the reasons why we collect certain data, the methods we use to pseudonymize the data, the use we make of it, and the identity of our partners when data is transferred to them. It also reminds you of your rights and how to exercise them with Qwant.
What data about you is collected?
The information collected by Qwant includes:
- Identity information – this is the information we use to ensure that you are who you say you are when you make a de-listing request, report or create an account. This includes: first name, last name, email address.
- Device Information – this is the information we use to secure our network and improve our services and performance. This includes, for example: hash of the IP address (with a salt changing every three months at the latest, User Agent, market segment of a request, date and time of the visit, information of the country and the chosen language.
- Statistical information – this is pseudonymized information that we use to improve the performance of our web search service and to understand the use that is made of this service. This includes, for example: search keywords, where a user came from, search box used to trigger a query, type of device used, source of visit, operating system, major browser version.
In order to preserve the non-identifiable nature of the data, Qwant ensures to implement a conservation that does not allow cross-checking that could make a data identifiable.
What are the processing of personal data by Qwant on its search engine?
Treatment 1
- Main purpose: Web Data Indexing
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: Technical direction
- External: None
- Data retention period: Web data is continuously indexed to enable quality of service
Treatment 2
- Main purpose: Processing user requests and displaying ads
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: Data Directorate, Administrative and Financial Directorate
- External: Providers specialized in the provision of research results
- Data retention period:
- 7 days in an intermediate base
- 18 months in an archive
- 18 months by Microsoft
Treatment 3
- Main purpose: Management of requests to the mobility service (Qwant Maps)
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: None
- External: Specialized service providers in the provision of mobility services
- Data retention period:
- 7 days by Hove Navitia
Treatment 4
- Main purpose: Display of standard (non-personalized) advertising and measure its performance
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: None
- External: Specialized service providers in online advertising management
- Data retention period:
- 40 days by Smart Adserver
Treatment 5
- Main purpose: Fight for cybersecurity and detection of robots
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: None
- External: Specialized service providers in Bot protection, Providers specialized in
the provision of search results
- Data retention period:
- 30 rolling days by Datadome
Treatment 6
- Main purpose: Statistics and audience measurement
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: Product Management, Administrative and financial management
- External: Providers specialized in
audience measurement
- Data retention period:
- Aggregated data kept for 25 months by Qwant. In addition, the User Agent and the obfuscated IP address are kept for 25 months by Piwik Pro.
Search keywords and outgoing links are not transmitted to Piwik Pro.
- Aggregated data kept for 25 months by Qwant. In addition, the User Agent and the obfuscated IP address are kept for 25 months by Piwik Pro.
Treatment 7
- Main purpose: Measuring the effectiveness of certain contextual advertising results
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: Data management
- External: Specialized service providers in the provision of search results
- Data retention period:
- 18 months by Microsoft, 7 days by Qwant
Treatment 8
- Main purpose: Management of delisting requests and reports
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: Legal Department
- External: None
- Data retention period:
- Duration of the legal limitation period
Treatment 9
- Main purpose: Managing Registered User Accounts
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: Marketing Management
- External: None
- Data retention period:
- 7 days after account deactivation or 2 years after last login
Treatment 10
- Main purpose: Management of requests for information
- Legal basis for processing: Legitimate interest
- Recipients:
- Internal: Legal Departmen
- External: None
- Data retention period:
- 6 months
Can I learn more about major treatments?
Processing user requests and displaying ads
Qwant keeps for 1 month (from the 1st of the month) the keyword(s) entered associated with a pseudonymous identifier calculated from the User Agent of your browser and the hash salted with your IP address. After this period, keywords are no longer associated with an identifier and kept for 12 months for the purpose of aggregated statistical analysis (e.g. how many times a keyword is searched for over a given period).
This processing is necessary for the execution of Qwant’s General Terms and Conditions of Use, on the basis of Article 6.1.b of the GDPR (processing necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us), and meets Qwant’s legitimate interest (Article 6.1.f of the GDPR) to secure and make its services reliable.
In order to provide you with relevant results from around the world when we do not have the answers to your queries ourselves, we partner with Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited to provide a portion of our search results and provide contextual advertising based on the keywords entered and your geographic region.
For this purpose, Qwant may transfer to this partner the following pseudonymous data related to your request:
- Search keywords;
- Information about the browser you are using (the User Agent);
- The first three bytes of your IP address;
- The approximate geographic area at the origin of the search, at the scale of a region or city;
- The salty hash generated from your IP address, your User Agent and a salt changing no later than every 3 months;
- A random token generated by Qwant (aiming to limit data cross-checking).
This processing is necessary for the execution of Qwant’s General Terms and Conditions of Use, on the basis of Article 6.1.b of the GDPR (processing necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us).
In addition, for security purposes and reliability of our partner’s services (detection of spam, automated activity, fraudulent clicks on advertisements …), Qwant may also collect and transfer to this partner your full IP address.
This processing is in the legitimate interest of Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited (Article 6.1.f) to secure and make its services more reliable.
This data is transmitted to this partner within the European Union, and may be retained in accordance with Bing’s Privacy Policy for a maximum period of 18 months.
Measuring the effectiveness of certain contextual advertising results
In order to establish an aggregated measure of the effectiveness of advertisements provided by our partner Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited and to strengthen its means of detecting fraudulent clicks, Qwant may also transfer the following data for certain categories of ads if you click on an advertisement from the Microsoft network and return to the same Qwant results page:
- The measurement of the time elapsed between your click on the ad and your eventual return to the results page.
This data shared with Microsoft is used exclusively for the purposes indicated above and may not be used for any other purpose. It cannot be used for advertising based on a user profile on Qwant or third-party services.
This data is transmitted to this partner within the European Union, and may be retained in accordance with Bing’s Privacy Policy for a maximum period of 18 months.
This processing is necessary for the execution of Qwant’s General Terms and Conditions of Use, on the basis of Article 6.1.b of the GDPR (processing necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us).
Statistics and audience measurement
To evaluate its audience and understand the use of its services in order to improve them, Qwant also keeps other data relating to your use of the services (associated for 30 days with an anonymous identifier common to all users In addition, the Qwant provider keeps an anonymous randomly generated visitor ID for 13 months from the first visit.
Likewise, we occasionally run so-called “A/B” tests. These tests enable us to compare different versions of our engine or features to see which works best. The aim is to understand user preferences and improve the usability and efficiency of our search engine.
In this context, we only use aggregated and anonymized data, such as the number of clicks on a feature or the time spent on a page, to evaluate the performance of the different versions tested.
If you do not wish to take part in these tests, you can opt out via our cookie manager. For these tests, Qwant’s supplier retains a randomly generated anonymous identifier that is kept for 6 months from the first visit.
This processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by Qwant to draw up statistics and measure its audience, on the basis of Article 6.1.f of the RGPD. These processing operations, which do not contain personal data, are governed by Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act (Loi Informatique et Libertés) concerning the exemption of consent in the context of the deposit of cookies for statistical purposes.
What data is processed for video playback?
When videos are embedded in our results pages, you have the option to watch them without leaving Qwant. We do not store any data relating to your viewing of the videos. However, the videos are called remotely by your browser from the server of their host which is likely to collect some of your personal data. Playback of videos from YouTube API Services is then subject to YouTube’s Terms of Service and Google’s Privacy Policy. Videos from the Dailymotion API are subject to the Dailymotion Terms of Service and the Dailymotion Privacy Policy.
What data is processed for the Qwant Mobile application on Android and iOS?
The processing of personal data carried out by Qwant during your navigation and the use of our Services from the application are exclusively those described above.
What are your rights and how can you exercise them?
The regulations on the protection of personal data grant you specific rights over your data and their processing by Qwant which are as follows and as detailed below:
- right of access, rectification and erasure of data under the conditions provided for by the regulations (Articles 15 to 17 of the GDPR);
- right to object to processing under the conditions provided for by the regulations (Article 21 of the GDPR);
- right to limit the processing of this data under the conditions provided for by the regulations (Article 18 of the GDPR);
- right to data portability (Article 20 of the GDPR);
- right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Article 13 GDPR)
- Right to define directives in the event of death (Articles 84 to 86 of the Data Protection Act)
Qwant has appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) to the CNIL, with whom you can exercise each of these rights:
- either by writing by post to QWANT – Legal Department, 10 boulevard Haussmann 75009 Paris, France;
- either by sending an e-mail to the address dpo@qwant.net
Right of access
You can ask us directly whether we hold data about you and also information about its processing (such as the categories of data processed). This right also allows you to ask Qwant to provide you with all of this data.
Information related to the exercise of this right of access (for example your contact details) is kept for one year from the date of Qwant’s response, then deleted at the end of this period.
Right to rectification
You can modify or delete at any time the information entered on the profile of your Qwant account.
For applications, you have the possibility to rectify them either by replying to the automatic email you received when sending your application, or by sending us an email to the address dpo@qwant.net.
For the forms requesting de-referencing and exercising other rights you have the possibility to rectify them by sending us an email to the address dpo@qwant.net.
Information related to the exercise of this right of rectification (for example your contact details) is kept for one year from the date of Qwant’s response, then deleted at the end of this period.
Right to erasure and “right to be forgotten”
Right to object
This right gives you the opportunity to obtain the erasure of your data as soon as possible from Qwant.
Specifically, you have the option to delete your account by following the instructions detailed here. As of the request to close the account, the data you have communicated will then be deleted after 7 days subject to our legal and regulatory obligations.
Similarly, you can request the deletion of your application file if you no longer want it to be processed by Qwant. Upon receipt of your request to close your application, all the data you have provided will then be deleted as soon as possible and at the latest within 15 days of your request.
Finally, you can request the deletion of the data collected via the information request forms on the site, with the exception of the forms dedicated to the exercise of your rights. Upon receipt of your request for erasure, all the data you have communicated via the forms concerned will then be deleted as soon as possible and at the latest within 6 months of your request.
The information related to the exercise of the right to erasure of your data is kept for one year from the date of Qwant’s response, then deleted at the end of this period.
You have a specific right reserved for individuals recognized to users of search engines by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), called “right to be forgotten”. When the search composed of your first and last name leads to results that are inaccurate, obsolete, sensitive or excessive, you can send us a request to de-relist the web page or pages associated with your first and last name by following the instructions available on this link. Your request will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and the URLs mentioned will be removed from the results of this search provided that the balance of interests in question does not require prioritising the public’s right to information (for example, if you are an elected official seeking to overlook a controversial political statement).
Information related to the exercise of this right to be forgotten (for example your contact details) is archived one year after Qwant’s response date and is permanently deleted beyond the legal limitation period (three years).
The right to object, as its name suggests, allows you to oppose the processing of your data by Qwant.
The information related to the exercise of this right of opposition (for example your contact details) is kept for one year from the date of Qwant’s response and will be permanently deleted beyond the legal limitation period (three years).
Right to restriction of processing
This right allows you, for example, to obtain the temporary withdrawal of the data published on the site in the event of a dispute as to the accuracy of the data, for a period allowing Qwant to carry out the necessary checks.
Information related to the exercise of this right (for example your contact details) is kept for one year from the date of Qwant’s response and then deleted at the end of this period.
Right to portability
This right allows you to receive the data you have communicated or to ask Qwant to transmit them to another controller (another site for example).
Information related to the exercise of this right (for example your contact details) is kept for one year from the date of Qwant’s response and then deleted at the end of this period.
You have the possibility to obtain a copy of your data by going to your Qwant account, by clicking on the button “Receive a copy of my data”.
FAQ - Privacy Policy
If you are wondering about the protection of privacy by Qwant, you will find below a frequently asked questions (FAQ) that presents a summary of Qwant’s Privacy Policy, but is not intended to replace it. For complete information, please refer to the full text of the Privacy Policy accessible at the bottom of the page.
Why is Qwant so keen to respect my privacy?
Qwant knows that the search you do daily can reveal many things about you and your intimacy (your habits, your interests, your state of health, your religious or philosophical convictions, your political opinions, your sexual preferences, your diets, your purchasing power, your cultural knowledge…). You reveal a lot of things through your research that you do not reveal to your loved ones or on social networks. However, you must feel free to seek all the information you want without feeling observed, and without giving anyone the opportunity to exploit this knowledge of your private life.
On the other hand, we believe that it is not healthy to change the answers based on who is asking a question unless you explicitly ask for it. On Qwant, all users who do the same search have access to the same results.
This is why Qwant has chosen not to collect personal data for the purposes of personalizing advertising or creating an advertising profile, and not to analyze your search histories.
So Qwant does not display target advertising?
Indeed. Qwant displays contextual advertising that depends exclusively on the keywords that are entered at the time the ad is displayed, and not on the person who performs the search. We do not display targeted advertising and do not incorporate cookies or other advertising tracking technologies.
Do you use advertising cookies?
Why do you transfer data to Microsoft, and which ones?
What can I do to better protect my privacy?
- Mise à jour : 29/11/2023
