For instance, Qwant relies on ad services from Microsoft for revenue. Consequently, Qwant needs to collect and transmit the IP addresses and search terms of its users to Microsoft. Microsoft, as some of us may know, isn’t exactly a role model in privacy.

However, Qwant claims that it doesn’t transmit IP addresses and search terms as a pair. Instead, search terms and IP addresses are transmitted differently using different services to make it hard for the parties involved to tie search terms to IP addresses. In other words, they make it hard for third-party services to build a profile on you. Nonetheless, some would argue that the mere fact that Qwant collects this kind of data is a potential privacy

loophole.

Qwant shares some of the data it collects with advertising partners like Microsoft. Your search keywords, IP address data, and geographical location are shared with Microsoft and are stored for at least 18 months following Microsoft privacy policies. Although Qwant tries to anonymize the data it shares, its methods aren’t exactly

foolproof.

And then there’s the issue of being asked to turn over a user’s data by law enforcement. Like any other company, even privacy-focused search engines service would have to comply with a court-ordered request for data. Consequently, this means your data can somehow fall into the hands of a third-party.

From https://www.makeuseof.com/qwant-vs-duckduckgo-which-search-engine-most-private/

Qwant privacy policy : https://about.qwant.com/en/legal/confidentialite/