Photo illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket.
DuckDuckGo has a new tool to stop apps from tracking users. App Tracking Protection is a watered-down version of Apple's App Tracking transparency feature, which gives users the choice to opt-out of data tracking within apps.
DuckDuckGo's tool isn't part of an update to all phones, nor is it a separate download, but works across your device. The company says that the tool will block third-party companies from using it.
DuckDuckGo created a Gif.
App Tracking Protection will run in the background when you use your phone. When an app is about to send data to a third-party tracker, the tool will prevent the app from taking your information.
DuckDuckGo says that it is constantly working to identify and protect against new trackers, which means that your data should be kept away from them. You should be able to see a real-time view of the trackers that the tool has blocked, along with where your data would be going, from the DuckDuckGo app.
The company says that its App Tracking Protection tool will behave as if it is a private network. DuckDuckGo explains that App Tracking Protection works on your phone because it uses a local 'VPN connection'. App Tracking Protection does not route app data through an external server.
Almost all of the most popular free apps have third-party trackers.
DuckDuckGo found that more than 96 percent of the most popular free apps have third-party trackers that most users are unaware of. The company discovered that 87 percent of these apps send user data to a third party.
The tool is in a private waitlist, so you won't have to enter any personal information to join. To sign up, you have to download the app from the Play Store. ThePrivacy section has the following information: Hit the "Settings" followed by the "App Tracking Protection". The Private Waitlist can be joined from there. The feature is gradually being introduced to more people.
DuckDuckGo doesn't have the power to change the internal configuration of the devices it works on, which means that it can't replace Apple's. If you combine DuckDuckGo's blocker and the privacy settings already in the device, it's the same thing.
In response to Apple's tracking tool, Google started making it more difficult for apps to collect data on users by restricting them from accessing users' Advertising IDs after they have opted out of tracking. The built-in privacy protections that Apple has are still not as good as those of the more app-friendly Android.
