- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
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.”
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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.
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.
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!
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.
What is the app called? Are you referring to their browser?
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.
Thanks! Can’t believe I haven’t heard about this sooner. Cheers
So much Threads panic, yet we’re apparently willing to just believe whatever DuckDuckGo says, even though the company has a pretty terrible track record.
Go look at the permissions Threads is granted. Mine has Notifications and nothing else. Android won’t let it have access to most of the information in that list.
“Known to collect” - this app is sending data back to Facebook and we’ve made some wild ass assumptions about what that data might be in order to scare you into getting all your friends to download our browser. Worked pretty well, huh.
Oh cool, the bots are here.
Orientation? Why would Facebook need to know if my phone is gay? Jk, I know they really want to know my phone’s political orientation. Joke’s on them, my phone voted for Megatron.
It also wants to know how stupid my screen is for some reason??
In the name of Vectron I bring you greetings, ambassador. May the power of Vectron bring prosperity unto your house.
Is this the duckduckgo browser?
Yeah it is
Nice, thanks!
Damn, just straight up stealing other people’s content. Very cool
Original post: https://writing.exchange/@kreig/110664764474921792
Original poster: https://writing.exchange/@kreig
That’s insane, well I know one thing. This is making me want to go download the DuckDuckGo browser.
In the same week switching to DDG browser and to Lemmy. God dayum I wish there was a good alternative for Gmail.
I tried Proton but it’s so limited. Fastmail is much better, has free email addresses for masking, and a good (searchable) calendar.
Protonmail is pretty great!
I switched to protonmail. It’s especially good if you have your own domain name like [email protected] because you can tie that to your protonmail account.
I like it a lot so far.
Shill🤖
Wow, first time being called a shill 😂 Guess there’s a first time for everything 🤷🏾♂️
What’s your preferred private search engine?
Personally, I just found out about the Brave one. Giving that a try and it seems pretty good so far. Has an AI summarize at the top of the results which worked pretty well when I searched for a news item an hour ago.
A public Searxng instance is a great way to get some privacy back. We can run searches against multiple engines and settings stay in the local browser. Image searches can be proxied as well if the particular instance allows for it.
Enjoy!
🦆
Why in the first place do you want to use that garbage?
deleted by creator
How did you block all that? Can duckduckgo block apps from accessing that data? There’s no website version of threads yet right?
Edit: nvm. Duckduckgo has an app tracking blocker built in these days. Coolcoolcool
DuckDuckGo has a tracker blocker in their Android app that runs as a local vpn on your phone to filter tracking stuffs from other apps, mostly just acts like a firewall with their tracker list on it
I don’t care if this app becomes the new norm, I ain’t risking all that metadata. Fuck Facebook
They clicked “select all” when choosing what to gather, it’s easier.
Why did you download threads in the first place? Just scanned the app in exodus and the list of trackers is worse than all meta apps combined
Meta is still a privacy threat for fediverse users, if there are fediverse instances that remain federated with Meta.
Ross Schulman, senior fellow for decentralization at digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that if Threads emerges as a massive player in the fediverse, there could be concerns about what he calls “social graph slurping." Meta will know who all of its users interact with and follow within Threads, and it will also be able to see who its users follow in the broader fediverse. And if Threads builds up anywhere near the reach of other Meta platforms, just this little slice of life would give the company a fairly expansive view of interactions beyond its borders.
https://www.wired.com/story/meta-threads-privacy-decentralization/
I thought they were browsing the threads website via duckduckgo.
Perhaps to inform us all? Recon style self infection and inflitration of the brainwashed megacorp corps.
Holy shit. I’d ask how the fuck is this even legal, but seeing EU’s reaction I guess it really kinda isn’t
Social media is a tool of state surveillance and manipulation. Why wouldn’t it be legal?
in best BfME2 goblin voice: The Eye watches!
Remind me of that scene in The Dark Knight when Lucius Fox has all the screens with all the data from every smartphone around.
The only way I’ll use Facebook nowadays is in a browser sandbox. And before you ask, it’s pretty much Events and Marketplace nowadays; the main feed is unusable and horrifying nowadays, and everybody I know has moved on from Messenger.
Hermit browser does a good job of sandboxing random apps like that. Wish it had more than 5 sandboxes though, it severely limits its usability.
Everyone I know pretty much uses fb messenger exclusively, it’s the only reason I still have it. If there was a reliable way to hook into messenger from another app I’d switch in a second, but still the reliance on messenger is there.
It’s really good for group messages
“They trust me” “Dumb fucks”
