DuckDuckGo It is expanding the App Tracking Protection tool by making it available to all Android users as part of a new update.
property It was originally launched in late 2021 As a limited trial on DuckDuckGo phone browser Its basic functionality has remained the same.
upon activation, Application tracking protection (Opens in a new tab) It can detect when a smartphone app is about to send data to a third-party tracker and block those requests — at least most of them. It even works in the background in case the tracker wants to secretly collect data while you sleep.
Work in progress
The company states that App Tracking Protection uses a “local VPN connection” to work and does not send any data to DuckDuckGo itself or to a remote server.
New in the public beta is a real-time viewer that shows everything that’s being blocked. This includes who the offending third-party tracker is and what data they collect from you. If you have notifications turned on, you will get a Quick summary (Opens in a new tab) It tells you how many tracking attempts have been blocked on your phone. DuckDuckGo also made it huge The company’s ban list is publicly available on GitHub (Opens in a new tab) Where it can prevent companies like Google and Adobe from collecting data.
If this all sounds familiar, iPhones have a similar thing called App Tracking Transparency. However, it may not be the best. said Camille Bazbaz, Vice President of Communications at DuckDuckGo the edge (Opens in a new tab) Last year, Apple’s tool blocks user ID only for advertisers and nothing else. Developers are also under no obligation to honor a user’s choice to not track.
Users can try App Tracking Protection by updating the DuckDuckGo browser on your Android phone to the latest version or by Download it from the Google Play Store (Opens in a new tab). To activate the protection, users will need to go into the browser settings, and then go through the setup process.
There is still work to be done on the security tool. A company representative told us that there are still third-party DuckDuckGo trackers out there who may not be aware that they should be added to a block list. Users may also experience protections on other apps that are disabled due to beta. The company requires users to provide feedback so it can improve its app tracking protection. You can do this by opening the Settings menu in the app and choosing Share Feedback.
When asked about a possible iOS beta, the same company representative told us that DuckDuckGo is looking into it.
New results
Much of the advertisement is devoted to showing how third-party trackers work. Looking at the results, it looks pretty insidious.
According to DuckDuckGo, “The average Android user has 35 apps on their phone.” A mobile device with many apps may experience up to 2,000 tracking attempts per day. DuckDuckGo has also discovered that these trackers collect a lot of personal data including your email, phone number, exact location, and even device information. It is likely that someone will know what type of phone you have, screen resolution and local internet providers.
