DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection Beta Is Rolling Out To Android Users

According to the latest news, DuckDuckGo which is a privacy-focused search engine has recently opened its App Tracking Protection beta to all Android users on Wednesday. DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection Beta will help stop Google from snooping on Android users amidst mounting attention to the Big Tech company’s surveillance practices.

Let me tell you that Android users have an average of 35 apps on their phones. These apps send over a thousand tracking attempts to at least 70 tracking companies according to DuckDuckGo. That’s why the company has rolled out this new feature. DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking Protection feature for Android will help to block third-party trackers across apps and games on your phones. The feature will allow you to send you daily reports showing how many tracking attempts it has blocked across your apps after enabling it. The point worth mentioning here is that daily basis reports will be available for the first week only. After the first week, you will get reports every other week. The all-new feature doesn’t send data back to DuckDuckGo or other remote servers, which means all data stays on your Android device. A DuckDuckGo spokesperson stated:

“DuckDuckGo identifies trackers by testing popular Android apps, observing what type of information is sent to which companies that are different from the owner of each app,”

This feature is similar to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency tool, which helps protect user data from being shared with advertisers or third parties as well.

Apple’s feature relies on developers in order to stop tracking once a device disables App Tracking Transparency, however, DuckDuckGo’s feature will work directly on your phone to monitor network traffic and block trackers. A few apps, like browsers, are excluded from App Tracking Protection. DuckDuckGo said that the number of excluded apps was halved during the waitlist period. Moreover, the company hopes to continue shortening the list.

Here are the steps to enable the App Tracking Protection beta on your Android device:

1. Download DuckDuckGo for Android Or you can update to the latest version 5.143.1.

2. Open the DuckDuckGo app.

3. Tap Settings.

4. Tap the App Tracking Protection beta in the More from DuckDuckGo section.

5. Follow the on-screen prompts, and here you go.

Also Read: Top 5 WhatsApp Privacy Features You Need to Know About – PhoneWorld