Lilo is a French solidarity search engine founded in 2014 by Clement Le Bras and Marc Haussaire and launched in 2015. It redistributes 50% of its advertising revenue to social and environmental projects chosen by its users. With over 650,000 monthly users and more than 5 million euros donated to charitable associations, Lilo combines everyday web searching with meaningful social impact. In May 2025, Lilo was acquired by Qwant while maintaining its charitable model.

Key Features

• Water drops system: earn one drop per search, then allocate drops to chosen projects
• 50% of advertising revenue goes to social and environmental causes
• Supports hundreds of projects across environmental, humanitarian, and animal welfare causes
• Metasearch engine aggregating results from Google, Bing, and Yahoo
• Available as a browser extension and mobile app
• Web, image, video, and news search
• Part of the broader European search ecosystem alongside Qwant

Privacy and Security

Lilo stores all its servers in France and follows GDPR regulations and CNIL (French data protection authority) recommendations. IP addresses are retained for one year as required by French law, then deleted. Analytics are performed using Piwik without cookies and with anonymized IP addresses. Account data is not resold or transmitted to third parties.

Data Concerns

• All servers located in France
• IP addresses retained for one year (French legal requirement), then deleted
• No personal data resold to third parties
• Cookie-free analytics with anonymized IP addresses
• GDPR compliant under French and EU jurisdiction
• Users can modify or delete their account data at any time
• Acquired by Qwant in 2025, strengthening its position within European search sovereignty