DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser for Android is getting an App Tracking Protection feature

DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser is an open source web browser for Google's Android operating system by DuckDuckGo. The company, best known for its privacy-focused search engine, developed the Android application as a companion app for Android.
First launched in 2018, the Android application has since then several important feature additions and improvements. At its core, it is a web browser that uses WebView, the rendering engine that is provided by Android.
Some of the application's core features include encryption enforcement, better control over browsing data, blocking of website tracking and of course, use of DuckDuckGo as the search engine.
DuckDuckGo launched an email tracker blocking recently, which is also available as a beta service in the application.
The latest release, version 5.102.3 of DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser for Android, introduces an App Tracking Protection feature.
New! DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection BETA — block trackers lurking in your apps. Join the private waitlist (in settings) and your invite will arrive soon.
DuckDuckGo discovered that over 96% of free Android applications that it tested included trackers. Of these, 87% sent data to Google and 68% to Facebook, often without the user seeing any of that in the application.
The new version of the browser can be downloaded from the official GitHub repo, rollout via Google Play is slow as always.
The feature is labeled as beta and users need to join a waiting list and receive an invitation based on the waiting list position to start using it.
Here is how that is done (in the app):
- Open the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser application. Make sure it is at least version 5.102.3.
- Select Menu (three-dots) > Settings.
- Scroll down to the Privacy section.
- Tap on "App Tracking Protection".
- Select to join the wait list.
You may enable notifications to get one when you receive the invite to start using the new protection.
DuckDuckGo's tracking protection feature for applications uses the "VPN-method" to block trackers system-wide on Android. The method is not new, but very effective when it comes to the blocking of trackers. Unlike "real" VPN solutions for Android, traffic is not routed through servers on the Internet but handled on the device locally.
After enabling App Tracking Protection, the DuckDuckGo app will detect when your Android apps are about to send data to third-party tracking companies found in our app tracker dataset, and block those requests. You can enjoy your apps as you normally would and App Tracking Protection will run in the background and continue to block the detected trackers throughout your apps, even while you sleep. We are continually working to identify and protect against new trackers, so you can rest easy knowing you’re getting the most up-to-date protection.
If you have turned on notifications, you will get regular summaries of the application's Tracking Protection activity, revealing the number of tracking attempts that were blocked by it and the total number of applications that tried to communicate with the trackers.
The beta version excludes "a small number of apps" because they "rely on tracking to work properly" according to DuckDuckGo.
Now You: do you use tracker blockers on your mobile devices?


Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?