Facebook And Google Secretly Track Your Phone—This App Stops It


A new warning for Android users as the staggering number of "scary" trackers hidden in popular apps is suddenly exposed. Apple has already killed this spyware for iPhone users, and a free new app has just launched to do the same on Android.

Apple's app tracking transparency turned the digital advertising industry on its head this year. To cut billions of dollars off the revenue lines of Facebook and others. The brilliant innovation is forcing apps to ask iPhone users for explicit permission before they can track those users from app to app or on the web.

When this new privacy feature was first touted, the industry amusingly hoped that users would opt for tracking to better customize the ads that followed them online. The rest of us could see that hope was just a fantasy. Predictably, users did not choose to be followed, with the vast majority saying no. Who would have a thought?

App tracking transparency

Apple

Google has copied Apple’s innovations before; it may be dragging on, but Apple has a privacy agenda it cannot ignore. Because of this, you now have much better control over the data on your phone, location tracking protection, alerts when apps tap the camera or microphone, and app permissions with time slots.

But Google is the digital advertising giant - behind the scenes of Android, Chrome and its other platforms, find a spider web of trackers and data algorithms. So when it comes to app tracking, the tech giant is in the same position as it is with third-party tracking cookies in Chrome and privacy labels.

Keyword DuckDuckGo. The privacy-first search engine and browser extension has now stepped in to fill the gap in app tracking left by Google. It has just started a beta of its new one Protection against app trackingwhich prevents apps on your Android device from tracking your phone and accessing your data. The intent is to give Android users the same level of protection that iPhone users now have.

DuckDuckGo told me that it has the "largest, most comprehensive list of trackers in the business." Even Apple uses this record to check trackers blocked in Safari. “We want to keep people safe where they are and spend most of their time in mobile apps,” the team explained. "Over the years we've invested in tracker radar to identify companies and technologies that are tracking people online."

Protection against app tracking

DuckDuckGo

As the company says, “These hidden app trackers are super creepy because they can track everything you do in an app and keep tracking you even when you are not using the app. Many are designed to record your activities in real time: where you are, what you do, where you have been, even how many hours you sleep at night. "

DuckDuckGo says 96% of the Android apps tested had such hidden trackers; 87% of them sent data back to Google and 68% to Facebook. While the Facebook statistics are not surprising, the Google statistics should be an eye-opener.

Remember, Google is behind the Android operating system, it is behind the new privacy protection that was added in Android 10 and 11. It is a poacher and a gamekeeper. This is the same criticism the company made of Chrome (the world's most popular browser) and its control over 75% of web trackers.

“Google and Facebook can spy on almost anything you do on your phone,” DuckDuckGo told me, where to go with it and so on. “The team told me that even if users reset their Android advertising ID, it supposedly does so helps stop tracking, it's of little use. "Apps send several other permanent identifiers, including information about the device, email addresses, and GPS locations."

I test the tracking protection, install four new apps (randomly) on the phone, and then open each app only once. Within a few minutes, the new DuckDuckGo app tracking protection reported more than 60 tracking attempts in these four apps. Let's think this through - I installed an app, opened it, and the app immediately contacted its handlers and started spying on me and my activities.

Protection against app tracking

DuckDuckGo

The DuckDuckGo solution can be found in its existing app. It offers the same level of comprehensive protection as Apple's app tracking transparency, but it has two major differences.

First, unlike an iPhone, once installed and activated, the protection works for all apps on the device. You don't have to manage settings app by app, and you don't rely on each of those apps to adhere to your settings. While this difference is good, the downside is that some apps that access websites as part of their core functionality may not work properly. You will see the identified ones on the dashboard.

Second, the technology works by creating a local VPN on the phone that is programmed with the URLs of the tracking sites that the mainstream trackers in your apps are trying to visit. It just blocks that traffic. While this solution is more robust than telling apps to ignore a user's advertising identifier, if you enable a full VPN while traveling or using public WiFi, the DuckDuckGo solution is exposed.

Just like its most recent solution to blocking email tracking, DuckDuckGo launched app tracking protection as a private beta, which means you can join a waiting list, with more users getting access every week. “We made the decision to release the app tracking protection in beta while we work to make the experience the best it can be. While it's in beta, some apps will be excluded as they rely on tracking to work properly. We hope to be able to reduce this list even further over time. "

This hidden collection of data powers the algorithms that influence how we feel, think, and shop. “This data,” says DuckDuckGo, “enables tracking networks like Facebook and Google to create even more detailed digital profiles about you ... Tracking networks can manipulate what you see online, target you with ads based on your behavior, and even sell data to other companies like data brokers, advertisers and governments. "

Apple's ATT was a huge hit, an instant iPhone privacy game changer that destroyed much of the app tracking potential on these devices. Now DuckDuckGo is hoping to do the same for the Android users installing its new update.

I have contacted Facebook and Google for responses on the release of this new technology or the extent of its hidden tracking that it has exposed. In the meantime, you can be added to the waiting list for app tracking protection through the DuckDuckGo app.


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