'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
How to disable DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection for a specific app on Android
DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection goes a long way to keep third parties from keeping tabs on you. For example, in the past week, the app has blocked 21,335 tracking attempts on my phone (some of which happened in apps I haven't used in weeks). Clearly, there's a lot going on in the background that DuckDuckGo is stopping.
Also: How to boost your browser's privacy with DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
However, I have noticed some apps don't function correctly with DuckDuckGo blocking them. To me that says one of two things: There are too many apps that require tracking to function or DuckDuckGo can be a bit overzealous in its blocking. Either way, if I find a must-use app isn't behaving as expected, there's only one solution -- disable App Tracking in DuckDuckGo for that app in question.
Do understand, I only take this action on apps that I know aren't working properly because they are being blocked by DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection. How do I know? The easiest method is to disable App Tracking Protection for an app and try to use it. If it then behaves properly, you know App Tracking Protection was the problem. If the app continues behaving improperly, chances are good that it's not DuckDuckGo.
Either way, you're going to want to know how to disable App Tracking Protection on a per-app basis. Let me show you how.
How to disable App Tracking Protection for a single app
What you'll need: To achieve this, you'll need the DuckDuckGo app installed on an Android device and App Tracking Protection enabled. That's it. Let's fix your app's problem.
1. Open DuckDuckGo
The first thing to do is open the DuckDuckGo app from either the Android App Drawer or the home screen.
2. Open Settings
Tap the three-dot menu button in the upper right corner of the page.
Also: Tired of being tracked online? DuckDuckGo's Email Protection can help
Then, tap Settings.
Accessing the DuckDuckGo Settings app from the menu.
3. Open App Tracking Protection
Scroll to the bottom of the resulting page and tap App Tracking Protection.
As you can see, App Tracking Protection is still in beta.
4. View Apps
Scroll to the bottom of this page and tap View Apps.
You can tap Having issues with an app? and it will take you to recent app activity, where you can also disable protection for an app.
5. Disable protection for a specific app
Locate the app in question and tap the On/Off slider until it's in the Off position.
Also: The best secure browsers for privacy
You will be prompted to report an issue for the app, which you can either go ahead and report or tap Not Now to dismiss the prompt.
Some apps simply do not behave properly if App Tracking Protection is enabled.
At this point, DuckDuckGo is no longer protecting the app against tracking. Keep in mind, the only time I disable protection for an app is if I'm certain DuckDuckGo is keeping it from properly running. If, however, you find the app still doesn't behave correctly, re-enable App Tracking Protection and look for another issue causing the malfunction.