smarter-encryption VS tracker-radar

> However, you do not need ublock origin here for privacy protection.

I'm happy to see DuckDuckGo entering this space and happy to see them building off of WebKit. And I think that DuckDuckGo is doing some fairly good stuff for privacy right now.

Nevertheless, this is a concerning comment. Ublock Origin isn't the only way to block ads of course and it's not impossible for something else to do better. But there is a reason it's widely considered the best adblocking browser extension right now, and it's not just hype or advertising.

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> Our tracker blocker is powered by our best-in-class Tracker Radar data set

The reason Ublock Origin is currently arguably the best-in-class adblocker for privacy protection is not because it does web crawling or because it uses a special data set, it's because of its capabilities.

DuckDuckGo using Tracker Radar data really has nothing to do with this conversation. It's possible DuckDuckGo's protections are sufficient on their own, but to make that determination you'd need to talk about the actual anti-circumvention features that it has, not just where it gets its data list from.

The comparison to Apple is particularly unfortunate, because Safari has easily the worst adblocking performance out of any major browser, so if they are using the Tracker Radar set to inform that, it's apparently not enough on its own to give them competitive adblocking performance.

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> Similarly our Smarter Encryption (HTTPS upgrading -- https://github.com/duckduckgo/smarter-encryption) is also based on regular web crawls and is many times more comprehensive then anything else out there.

This really shouldn't be in the same conversation, adblocking and connection upgrades are two separate factors of privacy. Both are important, but "we upgrade HTTPS" is kind of orthogonal to extension support.

However, since we're talking about HTTPS upgrading, bringing up that DuckDuckGo maintains a large list of sites to upgrade for doesn't really mean that much given that HTTPS upgrade policies (ought to) just all be based on the same lists. It's the same issue as above, I'm not worried about what data you use, that should be something that a lot of different extensions pull from. I'm worried about the capabilities, I'm worried about how effectively the browser can actually leverage that data set.

HTTPS Everywhere does not have a rule for indochino.com in its own database. There are some indochino.com related entries in DuckDuckGo Smarter Encryption database, which HTTPS Everywhere is using, but indochino loads fine for me with HTTPS Everywhere enabled.

I think the sub-domain that has the most fingerprinting is et.educationdynamics.com: https://github.com/duckduckgo/tracker-radar/blob/main/domains/US/educationdynamics.com.json

Essentially it creates a VPN configuration to allow it to filter traffic (necessary for that to work), but your traffic isn't actually routed through an external server like a real VPN. It blocks requests for personally identifiable data (device information, personal information, etc.) going to third-party domains that have been added to the DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar dataset. This makes it harder for ad companies to fingerprint you and track your activity across apps and websites for the purpose of targeted advertising.

Why are there so many trackers for this application? 96 attempts at collecting over 34 different metrics for Google when I launched the app. Fairly disappointed. Users feel free to try it yourself with the public duckduckgo tracking app protection here or install the browser through the play store. Go to settings and more from duckduckgo to enable app tracking protection. It creates a filter VPN on your device similar to how most root-free ad blocks work. Launch some apps, even reboot, and see what you find out. Quite a few apps feed abobe, Microsoft, and Google a ton of your info (read the metrics collected) and Plex is one of the top offenders for me right behind Google's own apps.

Considering how DDG maintains a list of known trackers, I was thinking "hey it might be possible to set up a Pi-hole using this", but perhaps this is more trouble than it's worth.

Yes, we are actively evaluating possibilities for add-on support. However, you do not need ublock origin here for privacy protection. Our tracker blocker is powered by our best-in-class Tracker Radar data set (https://github.com/duckduckgo/tracker-radar) which is based on monthly crawls of the web looking for third-party trackers and uncovering the latest tracking techniques. Many academics and companies (including Apple) are now relying on this same data set for research and tracking protection. Similarly our Smarter Encryption (HTTPS upgrading -- https://github.com/duckduckgo/smarter-encryption) is also based on regular web crawls and is many times more comprehensive then anything else out there.

You’ll also notice that your Google search results get far less dynamic as well. Everything will be within a certain proximity or relevance to your geographical location. You used to be able to turn it off and ask that results not be skewed based on it. Now it won’t allow me to. No more generic results. Apparently Google owns around 480 domains that are found to be trackers. Here’s a great compilation of domains and trackers you can look out for- it’s frequently updated and terrifyingly informative.

Yes, private relay is only iCloud users but with Safari 15, the browser hides the user’s actual IP address in requests sent to origins that are listed in DuckDuckGo’s Tracker Radar list. https://github.com/duckduckgo/tracker-radar

I work on App Tracking Protection. We'll have an app tracker dataset in Tracker Radar in the future, as well.

In terms of performance and customizability I don't think any extension beats uBlock Origin. I'm unsure what filter lists Ghostery's extension uses (likely crowdsourced ones) but I think DuckDuckGo solely uses their own Tracker Radar data set which you could probably just import into uBO via Blokada's custom domains version (more here):