DuckDuckGo’s privacy browser is here to provide Android users with the same level of security and privacy that Apple maintains for its iOS users.
When Tracking and Transparency was introduced with iOS 14 back in 2020, the wave of support from both Apple products consumers and the general public was palpable. For too long had websites and applications been robbing us of browser history, location data, third party cookies, and literally whatever else could be legally gleamed (hint: a lot can). Finally, users had a way of escaping all of that nonsense with no compromise in the process. No paying for VPNs, no loss in internet speed or processing power, just a simple pre-integrated set of features that told other apps to mind their own business. Of course, Tracking and Transparency was met with a lot of backlash from companies such as Facebook, which heavily profit off of selling user data to other third party companies for the purpose of targeted ads, but Apple did not budge. So, sure the devices are expensive, but privacy and security is a luxury that’s very hard to come by nowadays.
Android users, while definitely having access to mobile devices that are much more affordable and can even be fiddled around with to personalize or improve, are sort of lacking in the privacy department. With Google Play doing absolutely nothing to have apps announce their intentions with user data, or to stop gleaming it, no change of any major proportions is expected in coming times. Perhaps VPNs really are the only feasible option left to Android users. Or, at any rate, that was the case until very recently. DuckDuckGo, a browser that prides itself on privacy and user security about all else, is utilizing its app in order to provide Android users with security on par with what Apple does for its users.
DuckDuckGo’s app sets up a firewall inside a user’s phone that essentially blocks all traffic to other applications that are identified as trackers. Trackers in this context refer to apps that are siphoning personal information off of a user, regardless of how insignificant or miniscule it is. DuckDuckGo identifies them by testing out popular apps on the Google Play store, and then noting the data that they obtain from users. This way, not only is traffic blocked to them, but much like Tracking and Transparency, users are informed of what apps are trying to steal what information.
Read next: Google is giving users the ability to delete their data from individual sites from settings, while removing the ability the to decline cookie collection
When Tracking and Transparency was introduced with iOS 14 back in 2020, the wave of support from both Apple products consumers and the general public was palpable. For too long had websites and applications been robbing us of browser history, location data, third party cookies, and literally whatever else could be legally gleamed (hint: a lot can). Finally, users had a way of escaping all of that nonsense with no compromise in the process. No paying for VPNs, no loss in internet speed or processing power, just a simple pre-integrated set of features that told other apps to mind their own business. Of course, Tracking and Transparency was met with a lot of backlash from companies such as Facebook, which heavily profit off of selling user data to other third party companies for the purpose of targeted ads, but Apple did not budge. So, sure the devices are expensive, but privacy and security is a luxury that’s very hard to come by nowadays.
Android users, while definitely having access to mobile devices that are much more affordable and can even be fiddled around with to personalize or improve, are sort of lacking in the privacy department. With Google Play doing absolutely nothing to have apps announce their intentions with user data, or to stop gleaming it, no change of any major proportions is expected in coming times. Perhaps VPNs really are the only feasible option left to Android users. Or, at any rate, that was the case until very recently. DuckDuckGo, a browser that prides itself on privacy and user security about all else, is utilizing its app in order to provide Android users with security on par with what Apple does for its users.
DuckDuckGo’s app sets up a firewall inside a user’s phone that essentially blocks all traffic to other applications that are identified as trackers. Trackers in this context refer to apps that are siphoning personal information off of a user, regardless of how insignificant or miniscule it is. DuckDuckGo identifies them by testing out popular apps on the Google Play store, and then noting the data that they obtain from users. This way, not only is traffic blocked to them, but much like Tracking and Transparency, users are informed of what apps are trying to steal what information.
Read next: Google is giving users the ability to delete their data from individual sites from settings, while removing the ability the to decline cookie collection