tracker-radar VS Android

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):

The issue should be fixed in the very latest version available. If you can try updating to version 5.181.1 (available in the Play Store or directly from https://github.com/duckduckgo/Android/releases/tag/5.181.1), that should fix the issue.

DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser (version 5.174.0): Privacy, simplified

We fixed this issue a long time ago.

https://github.com/duckduckgo/Android/pull/878

Thanks

DDG https://github.com/duckduckgo/Android

DuckDuckGo isn't sending your data anywhere, it's just acting as a filter between your apps and the internet. It's open source, so you can view the code to verify it yourself, and build it to run on your phone. And rest disturbed, if it was up to sketchy stuff, it would lose a lot of what it is staking its reputation on

Lots of things I like about the site. For one, I value that privacy has been highlighted.

They feature Firefox but it requires so much work to tweak. I feel this is a reflex recommendation though I do, very much, like that FF allows itself to be tweaked.

On the Desktop... I much prefer LibreWolf - which I didn't see listed. It is what Firefox should be.

On mobile, I prefer DuckDuckGo's Android browser. Firefox mobile comes bundled with 3 trackers! Why must you always shoot yourself in the foot, Mozilla? It's never ending.

DDG is not only open source (https://github.com/duckduckgo/Android) but it also does not have a single tracker. If that wasn't enough, it comes with a module called App Tracking Protection. It's brilliant. It blocks trackers from other apps. I cannot recommend this enough. The sheer amount of information collected from apps on your phone...

I have had apps at 30 attempts in the first few seconds and reach 1,000 tracking attempts within 1/2 an hour. Every single item - from contacts to specific location - is constantly being polled. Every app seems to be running spyware from various vendors - even my banking app.

Wall of text, time to stop. Nice site, love that it's not afraid to be technical.

DuckDuckGo is reputable and their browser is open source. They don't track and report the stuff they see, they just block it.

To be honest, I don't see any need for a DuckDuckGo browser. After their response to this issue, I personally wouldn't consider touching them. But even without that...why? Even without the horrendous privacy violation and the arrogant attempt to brush it away, is there anything DuckDuckGo's browser does that Firefox doesn't do better? I'm not aware of anything.