Expand / DuckDuckGo says its application tracking protection automatically blocks many types of known trackers, while the transparency of the Apple's app tracking only blocks IDFA (Identifier for Adverstisers) and asks developers to block others.
DuckDuckGo
Privacy-focused research site DuckDuckGo has added another way to prevent more of your data from being passed on to advertisers, by opening up its app tracking protection for Android to beta testers .
DuckDuckGo positions App Tracking Protection as something like Apple's App Tracking Transparency for iOS devices, but "even more powerful". Enabling the service in the DuckDuckGo app for Android (under the "More from DuckDuckGo" section) installs a local VPN service on your phone, which can then start automatically blocking trackers on DDG's public blocklist. DuckDuckGo says this happens "without sending any application data to DuckDuckGo or other remote servers".
Enlarge / DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection shows you details about what your Android apps are trying to send.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection shows you details about what your Android apps are trying to send.[/ars_img]Google recently provided Android users with native tools to prevent free tracking, including the Approved app-by-app location tracking and limited native ad tracking opt-out. Apple's App Tracking Transparency asks if users want to block apps from accessing the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), but apps can still use the larger tracking networks across many apps to better profile app users.
Allison Goodman, Head of Communications at DuckDuckGo, told Ars Technica that App Tracking Protection needs Android's VPN permission in order to monitor network traffic. When it recognizes a tracker in its blocklist, it "looks at the destination domain for any outgoing request and blocks them if they are in our blocklist and the requesting application does not belong to the same company that owns the domain."
Goodman added that "much of the data collected by trackers is not controlled by [Android] permissions", making App Tracking Protection a complementary offering.
App Tracking Protection launched a year ago in a limited beta. Since then, DuckDuckGo has updated the app to show you more information about the types of data trackers are trying to collect, "like your precise location, age, and a fingerprint of your phone." Through its testing, DuckDuckGo has found that an Android phone with 35 apps can register between 1,000 and 2,000 tracking attempts each day, sending data to over 70 companies.
WIRED's Matt Burgess tested the app when it launched, installing 36 apps on a new Pixel 6 Pro and logging into about half of them:
These included the McDonald's app, LinkedIn, Facebook, Amazon and BBC Sounds. …I left the phone alone for four days and didn't use it...
Expand / DuckDuckGo says its application tracking protection automatically blocks many types of known trackers, while the transparency of the Apple's app tracking only blocks IDFA (Identifier for Adverstisers) and asks developers to block others.
DuckDuckGo
Privacy-focused research site DuckDuckGo has added another way to prevent more of your data from being passed on to advertisers, by opening up its app tracking protection for Android to beta testers .
DuckDuckGo positions App Tracking Protection as something like Apple's App Tracking Transparency for iOS devices, but "even more powerful". Enabling the service in the DuckDuckGo app for Android (under the "More from DuckDuckGo" section) installs a local VPN service on your phone, which can then start automatically blocking trackers on DDG's public blocklist. DuckDuckGo says this happens "without sending any application data to DuckDuckGo or other remote servers".
Enlarge / DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection shows you details about what your Android apps are trying to send.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection shows you details about what your Android apps are trying to send.[/ars_img]Google recently provided Android users with native tools to prevent free tracking, including the Approved app-by-app location tracking and limited native ad tracking opt-out. Apple's App Tracking Transparency asks if users want to block apps from accessing the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), but apps can still use the larger tracking networks across many apps to better profile app users.
Allison Goodman, Head of Communications at DuckDuckGo, told Ars Technica that App Tracking Protection needs Android's VPN permission in order to monitor network traffic. When it recognizes a tracker in its blocklist, it "looks at the destination domain for any outgoing request and blocks them if they are in our blocklist and the requesting application does not belong to the same company that owns the domain."
Goodman added that "much of the data collected by trackers is not controlled by [Android] permissions", making App Tracking Protection a complementary offering.
App Tracking Protection launched a year ago in a limited beta. Since then, DuckDuckGo has updated the app to show you more information about the types of data trackers are trying to collect, "like your precise location, age, and a fingerprint of your phone." Through its testing, DuckDuckGo has found that an Android phone with 35 apps can register between 1,000 and 2,000 tracking attempts each day, sending data to over 70 companies.
WIRED's Matt Burgess tested the app when it launched, installing 36 apps on a new Pixel 6 Pro and logging into about half of them:
These included the McDonald's app, LinkedIn, Facebook, Amazon and BBC Sounds. …I left the phone alone for four days and didn't use it...
Expand / DuckDuckGo says its application tracking protection automatically blocks many types of known trackers, while the transparency of the Apple's app tracking only blocks IDFA (Identifier for Adverstisers) and asks developers to block others.
DuckDuckGo
Enlarge / DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection shows you details about what your Android apps are trying to send.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection shows you details about what your Android apps are trying to send.[/ars_img]Google recently provided Android users with native tools to prevent free tracking, including the Approved app-by-app location tracking and limited native ad tracking opt-out. Apple's App Tracking Transparency asks if users want to block apps from accessing the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), but apps can still use the larger tracking networks across many apps to better profile app users.
