DuckDuckGo’s new data protection for Android could stop the trackers cold
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DuckDuckGo is expanding its App Tracking Protection tool by making it available to all Android users as part of a new update.
The future originally launched in late 2021 as a limited beta on DuckDuckGo’s mobile browser and the core feature remains the same.
If activated, App tracking protection (opens in new tab) can detect when a smartphone app is about to send data to a third-party tracker and blocks those requests – at least most of them. It even works in the background in case a tracker wants to secretly collect data while you sleep.
Ongoing work
The company states that App Tracking Protection uses a “local VPN connection” to operate and does not send any data to DuckDuckGo itself or a remote server.
New in the public beta is a real-time viewer that displays everything that is being blocked. This includes who the offending third party tracker is and what data they collect from you. When you turn on notifications, you get a brief summary (opens in new tab) tell you how many tracking attempts have been blocked on your phone. DuckDuckGo also made its huge company block list publicly available on GitHub (opens in new tab) because it can prevent companies like Google and Adobe from collecting data.
If all this sounds familiar, iPhones have something similar called App Tracking Transparency. However, it may not be the best. Kamyl Bazbaz, vice president of communications at DuckDuckGo, shared The edge (opens in new tab) last year, Apple’s tool only blocked a user’s identification for advertisers and nothing else. Developers are also under no obligation to respect a user’s choice not to be tracked.
Users can try App Tracking Protection by updating your DuckDuckGo browser on your Android phone to the latest version or by download from the Google Play Store (opens in new tab). To activate the protection, users must go to the browser’s settings and then go through the onboarding process.
There is still work to be done for the protection tool. A company representative told us that there are still third-party trackers that DuckDuckGo may not be aware of and they should add to the block list. Users may also experience protections on other apps being disabled due to the beta. The company is asking users to provide feedback so it can improve App Tracking Protection. You can do this by opening the Settings menu in the app and selecting Share Feedback.
When asked about a possible iOS beta, the same company representative told us that DuckDuckGo is looking into it.
New findings
Much of the announcement was devoted to showing how third-party trackers work. Going through the findings, it’s pretty insidious.
According to DuckDuckGo, the “average Android user has 35 apps on their phone”. A mobile device with that many apps can experience up to 2,000 tracking attempts per day. DuckDuckGo also discovered that these trackers collect a lot of personal information, including your email address, phone number, exact location, and even device information. It is possible that someone knows what type of phone you have, the screen resolution and local internet providers.