On most occasions, the apps we use on a day-to-day basis do not leave us many options when it comes to managing our personal information. Yes, we can choose not to share our location with them, or the image and video settings, but in the end it ends up cutting the usefulness of the application. This leaves us in a dilemma: Should we sacrifice our privacy on Android for the functionality of an app that we need? The answer is no, and it’s thanks to DuckDuckGo.
The famous company has thrown out a new feature for android users. It comes under the name of App Tracking Protection, or Application Tracking Protection. Its usefulness is basically modeled on the functions that Apple launched in iOS a while ago, but this time for Android users.
Of course, the Application Tracking Protection proposed by DuckDuckGo is still in the testing phase, although it has already reached open beta. Therefore, if you want to try it on your Android device and stop sacrificing your privacy for the normal operation of your applications, here we tell you what you have to do.
DuckDuckGo is committed to the privacy of all Android users
In essence, this App Tracking Protection feature will detect any app that tries to send your private information to third-party companies. Also, the detection equipment is based on the extensive library collected by DuckDuckGo to date, which is quite extensive as you can imagine if you know its history.
What benefits does the user get? As well. As we mentioned, applications usually ask you for permissions that, if you don’t grant them, will leave their operation slightly hampered for obvious reasons. For example, not giving Google Maps location permissions will make it almost useless.
What DuckDuckGo raises is the following. You can give all apps whatever permissions they need to work. However, App Tracking Protection will be running in the background, and detecting when they want to take advantage of your kindness to share your data with third-party companies, whether advertisers or otherwise. Automatically, this movement will be blocked, protecting your privacy without weighing down your experience.
How to use App Tracking Protection on your device
Getting started with this feature is pretty straightforward. You only have to install DuckDuckGo mobile browser in the first instance, and then do the following:
- Enter the browser DuckDuckGo on your Android device.
- When it asks if you want to set it as the default browser, you can answer with any of the options. There is no obligation.
- Once inside, tap on the three points at the top of the screen.
- Enter to settings.
- Here, go to App Tracking Protection. Tap on Continue when a message appears on the screen. Then activate the function.
- It will ask you to establish a local VPN network. Accept too.
In a few minutes, your new DuckDuckGo configuration will have been stored. From now on, the application will take care of blocking attempts by applications to share your data with third parties. If you tap on the apps in the list, you will get more information about it and what information it usually collects from its users.