You Should Try the New DuckDuckGo Tracker Protection on Android, No Matter Which Browser You Use.
We all know that the Internet is not a “private” place. When you search for something on Google or download a new app, you realize that some of your data is probably going somewhere . However, what’s particularly frustrating about the state of our online privacy is how invisible the tracking can be. You may think you are doing one thing on the Internet when a whole other website or company is secretly watching your every move (and yes, I understand the irony here). If you are using Android, DuckDuckGo wants to help you.
What are app trackers?
Application trackers are programs that hide inside various applications. When you use the app, these trackers track and record everything you do, and we mean everything; They look at what you are doing on your phone, where you are, and your past actions. Worse, app trackers can often track your activity even after you’ve logged out of the app they’re hiding in, making them both creepy and aggressive at the same time.
Why track you at all? Well it all comes down to advertising and profit. Companies like Facebook and Google want to make your profile as accurate as possible in order to show you more relevant ads and have more information to sell to other organizations. This is nothing new, but the methods these companies use to track may be downright dubious.
You may know that Apple introduced a solution to this problem starting with iOS 14.5; App Tracking Transparency requires apps to ask for your permission before tracking you “through third-party apps and websites.” You can simply turn off the request for these apps altogether, effectively preventing them from deploying app trackers to your iPhone.
Android sadly doesn’t have this feature, but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer from app trackers. You can try DuckDuckGo instead; The company recently announced a new App Tracking Protection feature for its Android app to combat the dirty tracking methods that companies are promoting on Android.
How App Tracking Protection works in DuckDuckGo for Android
It’s okay if you prefer to use Chrome, Firefox or another browser instead of DuckDuckGo. An app doesn’t require you to actually use it in order to take advantage of app tracking protection. After setting up the application, you can go about your mobile business as usual. When DuckDuckGo sees that one of your apps is about to send your data to a third-party tracking company, it stops that request in its path. While it cannot prevent trackers from attempting to request this data in the first place, it can block the request before any data is transferred.
Unfortunately, this feature is still in closed beta, so you cannot sign up right away. Instead, it is best to ask to join the waiting list; DuckDuckGo says it approves new users every week; if you sign up today, your chances of getting into the group sooner rather than later will increase significantly.
To register, download the DuckDuckGo app for Android from the Play Store . If you already have the app, make sure it is fully up to date. In the app, go to Settings , then under Privacy, select App Tracking Protection . Now click on ” Join Private Waiting List ” and await your approval.