DuckDuckGo performed some in-house testing and found that “ver 96% of the 100 popular free Android apps … tested contained third-party trackers.
Many apps contain multiple third-party SDKs (software development kits) that share user activity data with other companies. While the DuckDuckGo app already blocks third-party trackers on websites visited within the app, the App Tracking Protection feature works to block third-party tracking in other apps as well. The App Tracking Protection feature in the DuckDuckGo app is the company’s attempt to do so. DuckDuckGo, which notes that the majority of smartphone users worldwide use Android devices, wants to provide such a third-party tracking blocker to Android users. However, unlike Apple, Google still doesn’t offer Android users a feature like ATT that prevents apps from conducting third-party tracking. This new data safety section shows Android users not only what information apps collect and share, but also how apps secure that data. In July of this year, Google released a similar feature to its Play Store. This kind of privacy protection doesn’t prevent apps, including Apple’s own apps, from directly tracking users’ in-app activity, but it’s still a protection powerful enough to have crushed Facebook’s data mining of iOS users and forced Google to modify its ad tracking tech.Īpple’s larger privacy push in late 2020, of which ATT was a part, also introduced a new app privacy section in the App Store, requiring developers to disclose what information they collect for tracking purposes and whether it is linked to users or their devices.
In a blog post announcing the open beta, DuckDuckGo touted its App Tracking Protection feature as more powerful than Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature on iOS and iPadOS.Īpp Tracking Transparency (ATT) first hit Apple devices back in December 2020, giving users the option to block apps from tracking their activity across third-party websites and apps. DuckDuckGo initially launched this new feature in closed beta, but, as of yesterday, the feature is now available in open beta for all users of the company’s Android app. Almost a year ago exactly, DuckDuckGo introduced a new App Tracking Protection feature for its Android browser app as part of the company’s plan to build an all-in-one privacy app that extends beyond just web browsing and search results.
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