It’s been a little over a year since DuckDuckGo was announced Protection against app tracking, or its app tracking protection for Android, a feature that is still in beta but is already available to all users who want to use it. And he promises an invention.

Broadly speaking, DuckDuckGo’s intention with the feature at hand is to “mimic iOS controls”, essentially allowing the user to block advertising and tracking that doesn’t meet minimum requirements. Basically, you activate the feature of old and DuckDuckGo takes care of it stop all trackers on your android. Everyone does, or at least everyone who has files on Tracker Radar, DuckDuckGo’s tracker blocking system and one of the most powerful on the market.

The question remained how the App Tracking Protection would work, as they didn’t explain it in much detail at the time, and since the testing phase started as a closed beta, we didn’t even get a chance to check it out first hand. Doubts remained as this feature comes directly implemented in DuckDuckGo for Androidwhich is still a web browser.

Demonstration of massive Android app tracking

So the question was whether to use DuckDuckGo as the default browser since it wasn’t indicated. Android was talked about in general and how many free apps contain trackers it’s unavoidable – that you can’t deny or block by granting permissions because it leads to loss of functionality in the app – and that the browser doesn’t prevent it.

And when it comes to blocking everything that happens in the browser, there are already alternatives that are just as or more interesting than DuckDuckGo, both in terms of privacy and web browser-specific features. In this context, it should be recalled that DuckDuckGo is still testing its browser for PC, currently only available for Mac, but the solution is much more attractive than expected.

DuckDuckGo for Android, an anti-tracking “VPN”.

App Tracking Protection, Android app tracking protection designed by DuckDuckGo, really works A “VPN” focused on blocking trackers. VPN in quotes because that’s how the system recognizes it, even though it doesn’t work exactly like a VPN. According to the assistant’s explanation:

How does it work?

App Tracking Protection **detects and blocks third-party app trackers, like when Facebook tries to track you in a health app.

It’s free and you can enjoy your apps as always. It works in the background and protects you day and night.

Who sees your data?

App Tracking Protection is not a VPN. However, your device will recognize it as if it were. It uses a local VPN connection to work.

App tracking protection is different. It never routes application data through an external server.

So yes, App Tracking Protection is a VPN, but it’s not because it only works locally to control what goes out. So don’t expect it to encrypt or mask your web traffic under a different IP than yours like a regular VPN would, because that’s not its purpose.

Interested in trying App Tracking Protection? If you’ve signed up for the beta waitlist, when you open the DuckDuckGo app, an assistant will pop up to announce the good news, guide you on the way to activation, and show you relevant information about the feature.

In any case, managing App Tracking Protection manually is easy: open the DuckDuckGo app and go to “Settings > More about DuckDuckGo > App Tracking Protection”. There you can activate or deactivate the protection, as well as control its operation, for example, “see what personal data tracking devices try to collect before blocking them (such as your exact location, age and fingerprint from your phone).”

You can also choose which apps are protected and which are not. By default, App Tracking Protection whitelists apps that are known to cause problems. In general and by its very nature, web browsers, but also others such as Gmail, WhatsApp or YouTube, to name at least a few well-known ones. They can always be removed from the whitelist, but the warning remains.

Be that as it may, in case of any doubt, the application will display help links to frequently asked questions, translated into Spanish. It is advisable to pay attention to them so as not to be disappointed. And the thing is, not everything that comes with app tracking protection is good.

Issues to watch out for when using app tracking protection

The concept and capabilities of App Tracking Protection are very well executed and we can count it as a success on the part of DuckDuckGo… which yes you have, had and probably will have its glimmer of light, but it tends to fix and is generally much more reliable than most of its competitors, even when it could be even more reliable. However, even the best ideas are prone to problems and this is no exception.

The most obvious counterpart to app tracking protection is that it’s an app that needs to be constantly activated to work, which translates into additional consumption, which is not small. Something that can be partially remedied by activating the feature only if they are going to use potentially risky apps – it will tell you which ones they are – with the resulting annoyance, not to mention those apps that stay in memory to carry notifications or whatever.

If you want to turn it off quickly without going into the app, persistent notification

Moreover, he is against it Android only allows one VPN connection at a time, so you won’t be able to use a real VPN with app tracking protection running. And this one has no bypass. At most what you use through another browser. However, this must be taken into account due to the apparent incompatibility of VPN use with app tracking protection.

The final issue would be the whitelisting issue, which is that if blocking some apps from tracking makes them inoperable, we’ll stay as we were.

Because of these issues, DuckDuckGo has made some progress. For example, since the introduction of app tracking protection last year, work has been done to improve app performance and a list of blocked trackers has been published for greater transparency. All in all, miracles to Lourdes: energy costs are still significant and there is no tutoring with a VPN.

Everything needs to be carefully considered because what was intended to be a solution can cause a problem. Characterization should not be forgotten either it’s still in beta. However, it has far more positives than potential negatives and that should also be appreciated. Of course, for ordinary mortals, it’s a tool worth having on hand, at least when needed. We’ll track him down.

Be careful: don’t confuse this with ad blocking on Android. It’s not the same thing. Although it is supported.