App Tracking Protection question

Questions
1

On my Samsung Galaxy I only have a few ‘normal’ apps after debloating and using mostly FOSS replacements. I use DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking Protection to block 3rd-party trackers in apps. When I look to see what 3rd-party trackers are blocked in the remaining ‘normal’ apps, they’re pretty much all Google trackers.

So I was thinking, is there much point in me using App Tracking Protection on Android? Won’t Google be tracking everything (location, device etc) anyway through system apps etc, which DDG ATP doesn’t block?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

2

Yes. GrapheneOS is more or less the only recommended way to mitigate trackers at the OS level

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3

AFAIK DDG’s app tracking doesn’t cover everything. You might want to give a try to NextDNS (Free up to 300.000 queries in a month, which can be enough for a single device) or something similar for DNS level blocking. But the ideal solution for this would be degoogling or using privacy focused distributions. You can also debloat the device you have to a point.

4

I know. In the situation I describe though, is there any point in me using DDG ATP, when the only 3rd-party trackers blocked in apps are for Google?

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5

You are still blocking a lot of evil with DDG, so I say that’s still a win in a grand scheme of things:)

6

Oh, for sure. Only a sith deals in absolutes. Every singular external call you can block from an untrusted source improves your privacy.

You may want to look into a DNS adblocker, like RethinkDNS. It’ll let you import lists to block known threats to privacy & security. Gives you a little more control & insight

7

Am I? Wouldn’t the Google trackers in the system apps/Android OS be sending the same info to Google as the blocked Google trackers in the apps? (Like device, unique identifier, country, CPU data etc). If so, Google is going to get those anyway from the system apps/Android OS.

8

I think what you are referring is the Ad id correct? I don’t think it is possible to deal with the device imprinting but you can disable or reset your ad id in the samsung devices

9

I guess what I’m wondering is: does Android/system apps share the same data with Google as that collected by Google trackers in other apps?

10

I don’t have a definite answer for this but all i can say is there are some google ad and tracking domains which are regularly blocked by the filters im using in my DNS logs.

Some examples:

googleads.g.doubleclick dot net

ogads-pa.googleapis dot com

crashlyticsreports-pa.googleapis dot com

app-measurement dot com

These are some of the many google domains getting blocked by my DNS provider on a regular basis for my phone (regular android rom). So you might assume your worry is correct but i still can’t say if they carry the same info or being sold to same data brokers as like the third party trackers do(because i don’t know if they are).