{{Header}} {{hide_all_banners}} {{Title|title= {{project_name_long}} Project Transparency }} {{#seo: |description=Transparency - Advertisements on the {{project_name_short}} Website, Sponsorships. Past and Present Sponsorships, Sponsorship Policies. |image=File:{{project_name_short}}-image-facebook-banner.jpg }} {{policy_mininav}} [[File:{{project_name_short}}-logo-text.svg|thumb||{{project_name_short}} [[Dev/Logo|logo]]]] {{intro| Transparency - Advertisements on the {{project_name_short}} Website, Sponsorships. Past and Present Sponsorships, Sponsorship Policies. }} = Present Sponsorships = == Monetary Present Sponsorships == === FUTO (Whonix only) (2024-08-26) === [https://futo.org/ FUTO] is mentioned on the {{whonix_wiki |wikipage=Donors |text=Whonix Donors Recognition }} page. FUTO does not request special sponsors privileges on feature inclusion, changes, etc. The donation was given expressly to help the project. FUTO does not wish to influence the direction of the project. === Power Up Privacy (PUP) (2024-08-15) === [https://powerupprivacy.com/ Power Up Privacy (PUP)] is mentioned on the [[Donors|Kicksecure, Whonix Donors Recognition]] page as well as mentioned in the page footer. PUP does not request special sponsors privileges on feature inclusion, changes, etc. The donation was given expressly to help the project. PUP does not wish to influence the direction of the project. PUP is also supporting other related projects such as The Tor Project, and Monero. This list is non-exhaustive. See the PUP website for further information. === Conditions === FUTO, PUP: * Amount of influence: none * Non-monetary contributions: none * Hiring influence: none * Writing code: none * Suggesting features: none == Non-Monetary Present Sponsorships == None currently. == Voluntary Listings == === Search Engines Criteria === Search engines are chosen by the following criteria and considerations. There is '''NO sponsorship''' by any search engine provider. '''Criteria for search engines'''. A search engine: * '''Needs to provide GOOD RESULTS''': Even if a search engine doesn’t censor, its results can still be bad. This can happen if its web crawler is poor (bad at analyzing pages), if it doesn't index enough websites due to low resources, or if it uses a weak algorithm. Quality can be hard to measure, but popularity (number of users) often shows how good it is—because users tend to choose engines that give them what they want. Another way to evaluate it is to use the search engine as your main one for a week. If it performs well, it's likely good enough. * '''Needs to have little to NO CENSORSHIP''': Censorship is hard to prove objectively, especially proving a negative. But if there is enough trustworthy third-party research or if the search engine itself admits to censorship, then it can be reasonably confirmed. "Significant censorship" means search results are heavily distorted, hiding accurate results in favor of less accurate ones. Even if some topics are censored more (like violent content) but other topics less than on other search engines, the engine might still be acceptable. * '''Needs to be RELIABLE''': The search engine should be online nearly all the time (99.99% uptime or more). Also, the organization behind it should be expected to continue for at least the next 5 years. * '''Needs to be relatively POLITICALLY AGNOSTIC''': Some search engines may show a strong political bias. This project aims to stay politically neutral to be inclusive and avoid pushing any agenda. The focus is on security and privacy. That’s why strongly biased politically search engines are avoided. * '''Less captcha wrappers''': Some search engines bombard users with captchas or block them completely if their network is flagged (for example, Tor users, VPN users, or even some normal internet connections). Some privacy-focused search engine wrappers trigger fewer captchas. So this is seen as a useful feature. '''Non-criteria for search engines''', NOT considered: * '''Not considered: Privacy by policy / ownership / location / hosted by which data center''': These factors are not considered. Even trusted projects like Debian and the Tor Project use services like AWS, Fastly, and CDNs. * [https://forums.whonix.org/t/debian-apt-get-updates-over-https-ssl-tls-by-default-or-avoiding-amazon-aws-pick-one/6272 Debian uses CDNs Amazon AWS and Fastly] * [https://www.torproject.org/about/sponsors/ Tor Project Sponsors Page Quote] **
Fastly’s global edge cloud platform processes, serves, and secures applications as close to users as possible, at the edge of the network. Fastly generously hosts our Tor Browser update downloads that can be fetched anonymously.
* [https://www.fastly.com/blog/sponsoring-tor-project-content-delivery-services Fastly Blog: Sponsoring Tor Project Content Delivery Services] * [[Trust#Self-Hosting_vs_Third_Party_Hosting|Self-Hosting vs Third Party Hosting]] Most privacy claims by search engines are just "privacy by policy", and key infrastructure remains hidden. That’s why trust is still needed. For comparison, [[Kicksecure]] focuses on security by design and [[Whonix]] on anonymity by design. Anything based only on policy is out of scope. * '''Not considered: Privacy wrappers''': If a search engine only acts as a privacy wrapper, it’s not considered. * '''Not considered: Non-JavaScript support''': This isn’t practical. Most modern websites need JavaScript. Limiting to only no-JavaScript search engines would drastically cut our options. * '''Not considered: Open Source''': Very few search engines are Open Source. And even if they are, without access to their databases, the Open Source code is of limited use. For example, even if Google Search were Open Source, very few could actually run it. See also: [[Artificial intelligence]] and [[Policy_On_Nonfreedom_Software|Policy On Non-Freedom Software]] * '''Not considered: open database''': Very few search engines, if any, offer an open database. * '''Not considered: decentralization''': Very few search engines, if any, are decentralized. Forum discussions (not part of criteria): * https://forums.kicksecure.com/t/add-searxng-and-startpage-buttons-to-kicksecure-welcome-page/992 * https://forums.whonix.org/t/local-browser-homepage-for-tor-browser-in-whonix/347/101 === Search Engines === This is a voluntary listing by {{project_name_short}} and no discussions have occurred with any of these services. See also [[Transparency#Search_Engines_Criteria|Search Engines Criteria]]. Version dependent. This list might change in different versions of kicksecure-welcome-page / whonix-welcome-page. Currently added or in next version: '''Table:''' ''Search Engine Notes'' {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left;" ! Search Engine ! Notes |- | Qwant | Great search results |- | Brave | todo |- | DuckDuckGo | todo |- | perplexity | Great search results |- | Ahmia | Onion domain search engine |- | startpage | Google wrapper. Less captcha. |- | all (if not specifically named here) | |- |} Some search engines are added to some derivative only, meaning either Kicksecure only or Whonix only. '''Table:''' ''Search Engines per Derivative'' {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left;" ! Search Engine ! Derivative ! Notes |- | perplexity | Kicksecure only | Cannot be reached over Tor. |- | Ahmia | Whonix only | Onion services can only be reached over Tor. |- |} Previously added but removed: '''Table:''' ''Removed Search Engines'' {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left;" ! Search Engine ! Reason for Removal |- | YaCy | No more great search results, no feature request by users |- | ecosia | Same as above |- | MetaGer | Same as above |- | peekier | Same as above |- |} Not added: '''Table:''' ''Not Added Search Engines'' {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left;" ! Search Engine ! Reason |- | 4get.ca | Not politically agnostic https://4get.ca/about |- | SearXNG - disroot | Not politically agnostic https://disroot.org/ |- |} related (not part of policy): [[Reporting_Bugs#Local_Browser_Homepage_-_Search_Engine_Feature_Request|Local Browser Homepage - Search Engine Feature Request]] = Past Sponsorships = == Monetary Post Sponsorships == === EyeOnPASS (2018) === * Time: 2018 * Where: Actually on the Whonix website only. Not on the Kicksecure website, which did not exist at this time. Why mention this on the Kicksecure website? See footnote. For simplicity, to be able to maintain this wiki page as {{kicksecure_wiki |wikpage=Dev/mediawiki#MultiWiki |text=MultiWiki }}. * Amount of influence: none * Non-monetary contributions: none * Hiring influence: none * Writing code: none * Suggesting features: none * Forum discussion: [https://forums.whonix.org/t/eyeonpass-com-sponsorship/4943 EyeOnPASS.com] == Non-Monetary Past Sponsorships == === All non-monetary sponsorships up to 2023 === The past list of advertisements includes: * Fosshost: fosshost.org was a non-profit organization that provided hosting services to the open source community. Fosshost provided a stage server for {{Kicksecure}}. * Jobble: link exchange. It shows advertisements for {{project_name_short}} for related searches. * Evolution Host: provided system administration advice for the {{project_clearnet}} website. These advertisements did not: * result in monetary compensation for the {{project_name_short}} project; * influence the direction of {{project_name_short}} development; or * lead to changes in {{project_name_short}} software or website choices (apart from the advertisement itself). When? Several years ago. == Past Sponsorship Grants == === OTF (2015) === * Where: Actually on the Whonix website only. Not on the Kicksecure website, which did not exist at this time. Why mention this on the Kicksecure website? See footnote. * When: 2015 * Details: ** https://blog.invisiblethings.org/2015/06/04/otf-funding-announcement.html ** https://forums.whonix.org/t/whonix-host-operating-system-announcing-sponsorship-by-otf/1122 = Future Changes = Any future changes will be documented on this page. = Third-Party Policies = == General Third-Party Policies == {{third-party-mentions-policy}} == Policy for Advertising on {{project_clearnet}} == * No targeted ads * No tracking * No spying * No loading of web content from third party pages * Just text and images * Advertisements marked as advertisements * No JavaScript or similar == Affiliate Policy == This is only a consideration for a hypothetical future situation. Example: a VPN provider would offer sponsorship if {{project_name_short}} would provide a wizard for easily setting up VPN [trial] accounts. * Non-default option * Non-persuasive option * Installing only Freedom Software by default (no non-Free, proprietary, nagware) * Transparency about the partnership * Maybe publishing scale of sponsorship (sum) * Sticking to fair, nuanced, intellectually honest option about pros and cons ** https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Whonix_versus_Proxies ** https://gitlab.torproject.org/legacy/trac/-/wikis/doc/TorPlusVPN ** https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Features#Tunnel_Support * No marketing lies * Wizard for easily setting up [trial] accounts * Easily replaceable with other vendors = See Also = * [[Official Online Profiles|Official {{project_name_short}} Online Profiles and Social Media]] = Footnotes = {{reflist|close=1}} {{Footer}} [[Category:Documentation]] [[Category:MultiWiki]]