Android owners - Get TrackerControl
Android owners - Get TrackerControl
TrackerControl allows to monitor and control hidden data collection in apps.
Title.
There's also a version on the Play Store, but you should definitely get the F-Droid version. It's the one with the full features enabled.
It lets you fully block some apps' access to the internet, including system apps. Depending on your phone manufacturer, like Xiaomi and Samsung, they can be extremely invasive and show ads on your stock apps.
These types of apps are great. Unfortunately they use a VPN to limit apps' Internet usage, which means I can't use it at the same time as a vpn. I have tailscale running 24/7 on my phone, so it's either this app, or tailscale.
I'm guessing if I'm already using adguard I don't need this, right?
Yeah, I think so. I'm also using AdGuard.
According to AdGuard it's blocked around 2,500 trackers and 24,000 requests just in the last 24hrs. Every app must be constantly connecting - staggering!
Just learned yesterday about duckduckgo's app tracker blocker - is this essentially the same ??
I haven't tried that DDG app tracker blocker, but if it acts as a "local VPN", then it probably works the same.
It does act as a VPN and puts the VPN icon on the top right (android)
What does it have that Netguard doesn't? Been using Netguard for a few years now.
Tried tracker control it works very well
Any guides recommended for dummies like me?
I don't think it should be too difficult to set up and understand what's going on.
Download it, install it, run it. Click on the listed apps to toggle whether you want them to be monitored (toggling this off means the app will be "ignored" by TrackerControl), if they can access the internet, or if you only want to block certain general categories (advertising, tracking, others). Some of the blocked domains that show up on those categories can be allowed by tapping them, the text will display if they're allowed or blocked.
Running it can make some apps not work properly. If manually allowing some stuff doesn't work, simply stop monitoring said app. I have to do this with some shopping apps: i stop monitoring them, finish the checkout, pay, turn monitoring back on.
If you already use a VPN app, then TC won't work, since it acts as a "local VPN"
I hope this response was useful and helpful. If not, please do say so and I'll try to make things clearer ;)
Many thanks!