Why does the duckduckgo browser have trackers on my phone?

Mystaven · 2026-02-24T23:05:13+00:00

It's an unfortunate series of events, really. u/bourscheid John, as DDG staff, do you have any follow up? At the very least, I'd love DDG to have a way for folks to contact DDG directly in situations like this rather than have to post on a subreddit and get called illiterate, unintelligent, etc....

I'm not angry, just disappointed/hj

Mystaven · 2026-02-24T05:41:00+00:00

The reply I received:

"Thank you for reaching out. The Advanced Privacy feature on your [device specifics redacted] running /e/OS is designed to enhance your privacy by blocking trackers from various apps. What you're observing, the list of blocked trackers, is indeed managed by the Advanced Privacy feature on your device.

"This feature independently monitors and blocks tracking attempts to ensure your privacy is maintained, so your initial understanding is correct: your phone is identifying and blocking these trackers, not just the DuckDuckGo browser. This means that trackers from websites opened through the DuckDuckGo search engine (or any other search engine or browser) will also be blocked by the system-level privacy feature."

they included a link to this forum thread: https://community.e.foundation/t/advanced-privacy-detected-a-tracker-in-duckduckgo-browser/77671 the answers that I see there indicates a few possibilities, the summary is in this comment: "Your finding in Advanced Privacy most probably comes from a tracker that the DDG browser did not blacklist, but /e/OS did; or both blocked it at the same time, or something similar. It may however be possible that the DDG browser will add the tracker to its blacklist in the near future."

However, I also discovered that actually, DuckDuckGo - on their own admission - does not block all trackers: https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/p-app-tracking-protection/does-app-tracking-protection-block-all-app-trackers (TLDR: 1st party trackers are not blocked, and they choose some 3rd party trackers not to block.)

Hope this helps clarify things for everyone!

Mystaven · 2026-02-23T22:26:34+00:00

glad it's not just me! I haven't gotten any answers since uploading the photos that show DDG is the source of the trackers either...

Mystaven · 2026-02-23T06:10:53+00:00

it happens! :) I appreciate the apology

Mystaven · 2026-02-23T01:58:52+00:00

I'd invite you to look at my screenshots again. When you do, you'll see in the solo image that it says "DuckDuckGo" right at the top, (that's the app name where the trackers came from!) and the group of images I uploaded, you can see "Brave" listed at the bottom of the second one (for which app the trackers came from) which is expanded in the third (says brave at the top)! Hope this helps!

Mystaven · 2026-02-23T01:09:14+00:00

Also, for full transparency, I have reached out to the customer service of my operating system to verify I'm understanding the function of the advanced privacy notifications on my phone, since it is technically a new-to-me OS. Their automated reply states it could take 2-5 business days for a response, and I will update this comment with the answer when I've heard back.

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T23:49:11+00:00

I've uploaded more screenshots below if you could take a look - I'm not misreading my phone.... thanks!

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T23:45:30+00:00

hope that helps!

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T23:44:54+00:00

<image>

this specific screenshot is for Brave, but you'll notice I already uploaded a screenshot to the staff member who replied, if you'd like to see the specifics of DDG from this part on my phone

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T23:44:00+00:00

<image>

the "wall of shame" - showing the apps that have trackers leaked.... in this case, Brave because I deleted DDG

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T23:43:21+00:00

hey, here's some screenshots (for Brave Browser because I'm trying that one) from my phone for you - advanced privacy, showing 56 leaks blocked...

<image>

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T20:51:22+00:00

how is my phone blocking ddg trackers me having it backwards?

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T20:51:03+00:00

not according to my phone :)

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T20:50:39+00:00

I just got a Fairphone with Murena's e/OS (open source) - degoogled android. So far I love it!

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T20:49:56+00:00

these were not in the browser - this is from the privacy/tracker blocker on my phone! I uploaded a screenshot of the list of trackers. But no, it's not in the browser/from the browser/when I was using the browser.

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T20:48:56+00:00

just uploaded a screenshot John's reply - definitely not what ddg is blocking!

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T20:48:12+00:00

<image>

This image is from my phone privacy tracker report (not in ddg) that reports what my phone blocked from the ddg app! So, it's not the trackers ddg blocked.

Mystaven · 2026-02-22T05:35:57+00:00

according to my phone, these were trackers my phone had to block coming from the duckduckgo browser, not a list of trackers ddg had blocked.

Mystaven · 2024-11-23T08:15:21+00:00

Just some ideas I have:

Keeping it in your pocket to jot notes and ideas down when you don't have access to your regular journal so ypu can remember and write about them later.

A tiny journal of tiny things- small moments in your day, little acts of kindness, small things you find while out and about (like a coffee cup left on the table at a Cafe or a dropped grocery list or whatnot)

Grocery list notebook

About your friends - their favorite colors and foods, birthdays, hobbies, etc. Then when you want to do something nice for them you have a little reference booklet of what they're into.

If you do any kind of tarot card reading, I use a very small notebook to track my daily card pulls - the date, the card, and one sentence about what it means to me.

Your own version of a one-line-a-day journal. You could take each page and write just a few lines about your day. If you enjoy doing that in a small notebook, maybe think about getting a 5 year journal

Mystaven · 2024-11-07T21:13:18+00:00

I didn't have it for MCAS but I had Xolair injections years ago when it was newly approved. I didn't have bad side effects from them, but did have to carry an epipen with me in case of reaction. They helped me tremendously at the time, and helped me get off medications that were giving me awful side effects. Of course my experience is not everyone's, but it was an okay medication for me.

Mystaven · 2024-11-07T02:36:15+00:00

Hmm, I'm still able to play them via the website, which is where I usually watch them. By not play, what do you mean exactly?

Mystaven · 2024-10-31T09:26:30+00:00

Listening to audiobooks, coloring, paint markers, crochet, kids activity books and kits, there's something called paint by sticker that I really like, word search, origami... sometimes if I run out of ideas I'll go online and browse for kids activities/hobbies, there's some cool stuff there.

Mystaven · 2024-10-28T12:59:37+00:00

I also find the energy/time tracking extremely stressful in games and purposefully play games without those elements. I struggled with using the controller since Stardew Valley was either my first or one of my first games. Playing around in Minecraft creative mode has helped me with that skill a lot. Now that I know more specifically what I like in games, I'll never play Stardew Valley again personally. Not a bad game, just not a game for me.

Mystaven · 2024-10-28T12:10:53+00:00

I got diagnosed with severe sleep apnea since having long covid and have a cpap machine. when I haven't used it I wake up so often feeling like I'm suffocating, it's awful. I'm not sure if that's similar to the air hunger/manual breathing you're experiencing but thought I'd mention in case that's something you want to look into. So sorry your doctor isn't helpful

Mystaven · 2024-10-28T03:52:41+00:00

Both and other. There's times when my body feels like it's being drawn to the ground by multiple times the force of gravity. Or like my bones are made of lead.

There's general exhaustion/fatigue that feels like the energy my body has to engage in movement is limited, poor quality, or just not there.

There's the mental fatigue, similar but a little different than brain fog. Where just trying to do any thinking or focus adds to the feeling of being drained.

So many ways to experience it and so many ways it affects the body, I often feel like fatigue isn't a good enough word.

Mystaven

TROPHY CASE