App tracking on Android devices
Android devices are not exactly the bastions of privacy. Unlike Apple devices, they do not have a built-in blocker for app-tracking, thus displeasing Meta to the maximum!
The solution: DuckDuckGo browser with its in-built app-tracking blocker, which functions as a “VPN” that needs activating with a couple of simple steps.
Android only allows one VPN at a time, therefore, one has to choose between a “VPN” that blocks app-tracking, or a real VPN for internet privacy.
Since I do not use my Android tablet on public Wi-Fi, I have opted for blocking app tracking. The results were quite surprising. A couple of examples:
Using a Swiss cloud storage app thinking that the particular Swiss company would respect privacy better than non-Swiss cloud services, I was quite surprised. Other Swiss apps were much more privacy-focussed, i.e., Proton and Infomaniak. (I now know the account of which Swiss service I am closing down.) Using the French e-mail service (that the government recommends) for all French administrative log-ins, in order to avoid Google, only to discover that they sell information to Google. “Isn’t it ironic, donchya think?” — Alanis Morissette.
© Text and screenshot by Razz 2025