But DuckDuckGo recently went even further, announcing that it’s going to rein in the tracking behavior of every other app on your phone, too. DuckDuckGo already offers a mobile Privacy Browser, a Chromium-based alternative to the stock browser that doesn’t do any of the usual snooping.

But your search history is only one small part of the online profile that advertisers create for you, whether you know it or not.

Apple's own app tracking feature has recently come under scrutiny thanks to a lawsuit which alleges the tech giant continued to track users' activity even when tracking was disabled.DuckDuckGo is a familiar and popular search engine for people who think their searches are their own business, and no one else’s. Whether it will truly safeguard Android users' browsing habits remains to be seen. But as DuckDuckGo points out in its blog post (opens in a new tab), its implementation, which differs significantly from Apple's in that it's opt-out by default, services Android - a user base which makes up the majority of smartphone users worldwide (opens in a new tab). If the feature sounds familiar, that's because iOS users have already had access to a similar private browsing experience with Apple's App Tracking Transparency. To use the new feature, all users have to do is update the latest version of the Android app, open settings, select 'App Tracking Protection,' and follow the instructions. The feature, which launched in beta for a limited number of users about a year ago, (opens in a new tab) has now added the ability to see what personal data trackers are trying to collect.Īccording to DuckDuckGo, the average Android user has 35 apps on their phone with 1,000 to 2,000 tracking attempts made every day.

On Wednesday, DuckDuckGo announced that App Tracking Protection, a beta feature that helps block third-party trackers in your apps even if you're not using them, is now available for all Android users.

The search engine DuckDuckGo is made for those concerned with privacy - and it just got a bit more private.

Duckduckgo privacy app