In the few short hours since I started using #Threads, #DuckDuckGo has already blocked over 200 data tracking attempts. These include things like “headphone status” and “screen density.”

  • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    1 year ago

    200 in a few hours sounds like a lot (well, it is) but is small compared to some apps I use. Revolut tried to make tens of thousands of requests in an hour last time I looked! I expect that particular app is coded badly so when it gets rejected it just endlessly tries to repeat the request.

    I highly recommend everyone installs something like the DuckDuckGo android app because it blocks tracking attempts in all apps. It’s a bit horrifying to see how often, how much, and what type of data all our apps are requesting.

    • Nickn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      1 year ago

      From what I’ve heard the number gets so high because duckduck blocks the app from gathering data. The apps keep pushing requests since they’re not getting any response. In reality the non-blocked requests are less frequent. Don’t quote me on this, just a thing I read on reddit.

      But yeah I have duckduck as well and it freaks me the F out seeing what apps are trying to gather. It’s sickening.

    • NullPoynter@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I didn’t know DuckDuckGo had the app tracker feature. It was just a browser the last time I gave it a go. Thanks for the tip! I’ve been using NextDNS for my Private DNS on Android for awhile. I had to temporarily disable it for DuckDuckGo to identify the trackers. It looks like NextDNS was doing a good job blocking them.

      • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        It might be surprlus to your requirements then, I’ve seen in a few discussions on here there’s lots of alternatives. Some apps it ‘breaks’ so I just disable it for that app. Nuts though the level of tracking that’s going on in our pockets all day!

      • Azurewrath@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        Yup, their browser. Had to check what apps were tracking stuff when I saw this post and for example Spotify was getting blocked twice every second while I was listening to music.

        I have 24 000 blocked tracking attempts since installing the browser a couple of weeks ago.