Whonix Project Transparency

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Transparency - Advertisements on the Whonix Website, Sponsorships. Past and Present Sponsorships, Sponsorship Policies.

Present Sponsorships[edit]

Monetary Present Sponsorships[edit]

FUTO (Whonix only) (2024-08-26)[edit]

FUTOarchive.org iconarchive.today icon is mentioned on the Whonix Donors RecognitionOnion network Logo 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)[edit]

Power Up Privacy (PUP)archive.org iconarchive.today icon is mentioned on the 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[edit]

FUTO, PUP:

  • Amount of influence: none
  • Non-monetary contributions: none
  • Hiring influence: none
  • Writing code: none
  • Suggesting features: none

Non-Monetary Present Sponsorships[edit]

None currently.

Voluntary Listings[edit]

Search Engines Criteria[edit]

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. [1] 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 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):

Search Engines[edit]

This is a voluntary listing by Whonix and no discussions have occurred with any of these services. See also 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

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

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

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

Search Engine Reason
4get.ca Not politically agnostic [2]
SearXNG - disroot Not politically agnostic [3]

related (not part of policy): Local Browser Homepage - Search Engine Feature Request

Past Sponsorships[edit]

Monetary Post Sponsorships[edit]

EyeOnPASS (2018)[edit]

  • 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. [4]
  • Amount of influence: none
  • Non-monetary contributions: none
  • Hiring influence: none
  • Writing code: none
  • Suggesting features: none
  • Forum discussion: EyeOnPASS.comarchive.org iconarchive.today icon

Non-Monetary Past Sponsorships[edit]

All non-monetary sponsorships up to 2023[edit]

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 Whonix for related searches.
  • Evolution Host: provided system administration advice for the whonix.org website.

These advertisements did not:

  • result in monetary compensation for the Whonix project;
  • influence the direction of Whonix development; or
  • lead to changes in Whonix software or website choices (apart from the advertisement itself).

When? Several years ago.

Past Sponsorship Grants[edit]

OTF (2015)[edit]

Future Changes[edit]

Any future changes will be documented on this page.

Third-Party Policies[edit]

General Third-Party Policies[edit]

Last updated: 22 February 2025

This policy applies to all equally, including sponsors, donors, advertisers, and external link targets -- in short, third-parties.

  1. Separate Legal Entities: Whonix always remains a completely separate entity from all third-parties.
  2. Non-Influence Declaration: All third-parties explicitly acknowledge that their contributions, whether monetary or non-monetary, do not entitle them to any form of influence over the Whonix project's development, direction, policy, or governance. The Whonix team retains full autonomy and makes all project decisions independently, without any external influence.
  3. Conflict of Interest: The project team is committed to maintaining independence and will take appropriate measures to ensure that third-parties do not compromise the project's integrity.
  4. No Endorsement: Acceptance of links to third-parties does not constitute an endorsement of the third-party's products, services, or viewpoints by the Whonix project. Any links or advertisements displayed are for informational purposes only and do not reflect the views of the project or its team. The Non-Endorsement policy applies.
  5. No Liability: The Whonix project and its team members are not liable for any actions, claims, or damages resulting from the use of third-party related products or services. Users are encouraged to conduct their own research and make informed decisions when interacting with third-party content.
  6. Sponsor Review Process: All third-party links undergo a cursory review process to ensure they align with the Whonix project's values and do not conflict with the project's mission or legal obligations. Any third-parties that could potentially compromise the project's objectives will be declined.
  7. Compliance with Laws: All third-parties will comply with applicable local and international laws, including those related to advertising, data protection, and intellectual property. The Whonix project will not engage with third-parties that operate in violation of these laws.
  8. Termination Rights: Any third-parties that undergo detrimental changes after the initial review will be re-evaluated by the Whonix team upon becoming aware of the situation. The Whonix project reserves the right to terminate any links to third-parties at any time if it is determined that the third-party's actions or products are inconsistent with the project's values, mission, or legal obligations.
  9. Indemnification: Third-parties agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Whonix project, its team members, and affiliates from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, or expenses arising from their relationship with the project, if applicable.
  10. Changes to Third-Parties Policy: The Whonix project reserves the right to modify its third-party policies and practices at any time. Any changes will be reflected on this page and will apply to all future links to third-parties.

(wiki editors notice: This is Template:third-party-mentions-policy, which is used on multiple wiki pages. See Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Third-party-mentions-policy)

Policy for Advertising on whonix.org[edit]

  • 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[edit]

This is only a consideration for a hypothetical future situation. Example: a VPN provider would offer sponsorship if Whonix would provide a wizard for easily setting up VPN [trial] accounts.

See Also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ https://4get.ca/aboutarchive.org iconarchive.today icon
  3. ↑ https://disroot.org/archive.org iconarchive.today icon
  4. ↑ For simplicity, to be able to maintain this wiki page as Kicksecure logo MultiWikiOnion network Logo.
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