TrackerControl is a free and open source application that allows you to monitor and control these app trackers on Android.
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Video Description
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If you’re wanting to monitor and control the data being extracted by so-called “trackers” in applications and games, there are a few great options to choose from. Today, I want to show you a really popular, free, and open source application called TrackerControl.
The team analyzed about 2 million apps and combined their own in-house blocklist with the Disconnect Blocklist that Firefox uses in order to reveal the companies behind tracking your personal data. They used that information to selectively block and categorize these trackers, while also sharing the reasons behind them (whether it be for analytics for advertising).
TrackerControl also has a section to help educate you about your data protection rights, in areas such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR for short).
The application is able to do this by using Android’s VPN feature but they’re keeping everything local when it comes to the traffic going through this VPN. This application can be downloaded on GitHub, F-Droid, IzzyOnDroid, or even the Google Play Store. Although, the version on Google Play does not block tracking due to Google’s ToS policies.
I’ll even include a direct download link in the video description below for the version I’m using now that was downloaded from GitHub.
When we install it, it’s going to as you if you want to enable strict enforcement when it comes to blocking trackers. However, realize that if you enable this feature it could break many applications as the trackers being blocked are considered “essential”
For example, until I enabled some of these trackers, the weather widget application I use just wouldn’t work. Without enabling some trackers for the Google News application, it had stopped being updated with new content. And apps like YouTube Music can’t play certain things if some of these trackers are blocked.
That doesn’t mean you have to allow all of them, but this application gives you the ability to pick and choose. It also comes with a persistent notification that allows you to pause the service for X number of minutes. This defaults to 10 minutes but changing this to 1 minute was enough for it to be useful to me.
Mentioned Links
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GitHub Source Code – https://github.com/TrackerControl/tracker-control-android
TrackerControl APK Download – https://dlsharefile.com/filedetail/1300521924
Example Use – https://trackercontrol.org/#example-use
Step by Step Tutorial
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1. Intro [00:00]
2. How TrackerControl works [00:46]
3. Download and install the application [01:55]
4. Enable the toggle within the app [02:14]
5. Enable the VPN [03:00]
6. Examples of data blocked [04:55]
7. How to disable the essentials for a better UX [05:40]
8. Traffic Log feature [06:30]
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