Background information
Apple iOS 14.5: online privacy, please
by Dominik Bärlocher
Anti-tracking on Android: regain some privacy with DuckDuckGo
22.11.2021
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
App tracking is a multibillion-dollar industry that seriously violates your privacy. Apple has been taking action against this since April, and now DuckDuckGo on Android is following suit.
The Android app of the DuckDuckGo search engine is cracking down on app tracking – a shot across the bows for Google. The beta version of the app released today allows you to opt out of app tracking. Doing so prevents the other apps on your phone from tracking the search terms you enter and the websites you visit in the DuckDuckGo app.
The idea stems from Apple; last April, the Cupertino-based company extended the feature to its entire operating system.
Hard blow against the advertising industry
Apple’s implementation has been a success. Thanks to this one setting, the advertising industry has been recording losses of about 30,000 francs per minute worldwide. According to reports in the financial magazine Financial Times, this amounts to a total of 10,000,000,000 US dollars since April 2021.
While this has hurt the advertising industry, it’s very good for us users. Ten billion USD is just a fraction of the industry’s revenue, but it’s still ten billion that advertising companies would like to have. In return, we users get a bit of our privacy back. We’re just a bit less of a product the industry can sell for the promise of free software.
It’s unlikely that Google will strike the same blow against the advertising industry. Google itself makes too much money from advertising to simply turn off tracking.
DuckDuckGo is the first privacy browser that mimics Apple’s app tracking. This is good news, as it was when announced by Apple. Hopefully, more browsers, for instance Brave, will follow suit.
Sign up for the beta
DuckDuckGo is not yet rolling out its app tracking feature to all devices. For the time being, it remains in beta. If you want a little more privacy, you’ll have to sign up. Here’s how:
- Open the DuckDuckGo app.
- Tap on the three dots at the top right.
- Go to Settings.
- Scroll down to the beta features, where you’ll find «App Tracking Protection».
- Tap on it to sign up for the beta.
After that, the waiting begins. Your request will be reviewed and the beta activated. You can choose to be notified when your request is approved.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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