TrackerControl
TrackerControl allows users to monitor and control the widespread, ongoing, hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behaviour ('tracking').
What is TrackerControl?
TrackerControl aims to inform, empower, and educate users with regards to tracking in apps, that is, collection of data about user behaviour.
To visualise this tracking, a compehensive database of tracker companies from the X-Ray project, developed by Professor Max Van Kleek (University of Oxford) and others, is used to reveal the companies behind tracking to users and to allow users to block tracking selectively.
The app further aims to educate users about their legal rights under current EU Data Protection Law (i.e. GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive).
Under the hood, Tracker Control uses Android’s VPN functionality, to analyse apps’ network communications locally on the Android device. This is accomplished through a local VPN server, through which all network communications are passed, to enable the analysis by Tracker Control. In other words, no external VPN server is used, and hence no network data leaves the user’s device for the purposes of tracker analysis.
Tracker Control provides
- real-time monitoring of app tracking,
- granular blocking of app tracking,
- access to apps’ privacy policy websites without trackers (which they often contain), and
- one-click data requests as granted under EU Data Protection Legislation (to be added soon).
Contrary to similar solutions, this application does not intercept SSL connections, minimising privacy risks and allowing for usage on unrooted Android devices. Only the meta data about network communications is logged, and displayed to the users.
TrackerControl Screenshots
TrackerControl Features
TrackerControl information
- Developed byKonrad Kollnig (Oxford HCC)
- LicensingOpen Source (GPL-3.0) and Free product.
- Written in
- RatingAverage rating of 5
- Alternatives15 alternatives listed
Comments and Reviews
Said about TrackerControl as an alternative
Way more granular than Lockdown in terms of blocking and unblocking and a lot easier to see what apps are connecting to what services.
Blocking trackers will break things. This app makes it super easy to minimize whitelisting only what is needed, not entire apps. The traffic log super easy to read, catch those sneaky ones not even open but pinging home in background, stuff not listed in some large companies TOS.
Tags
- Privacy Protection
- Privacy Tool
- GDPR
- tracker-analysis
Category
Security & PrivacyRecent user activities on TrackerControl
- andreamazzilli liked TrackerControlan
- RemovedUser added Lightweight as a feature to TrackerControlRe
RemovedUser thinks uBlock Origin is an alternative to TrackerControl
This is the best app by far for not only tracker control but it makes traffic logging super easy with filters that allow you easily see other items besides only trackers. It is like using Wireshark could be easily filtered with a couple clicks.
Best feature is you can enable/disable items by individual trackers and it does excellent job on its own of identifying necessary ones and blocking rest. You can block all though and if anything breaks, turn them back on one at a time. That is awesome since some apps use CDNs from some companies that track and have valid function and most other apps you would have to leave other items unblocked to keep open the one essential connection.
And do not even need root. Plus, they keep on improving it further. I am blown away by this after using numerous tools including enterprise ones for years and years now.
It even assisted with catching 3 of my apps breaking their rules and trying to communicate back to analytics that I only knew because of the traffic log.
It's controversial but I think Android is imperfect on security and privacy of data, a lot of things leak from phones and more with Google but thanks to applications like this one help to patch and see what leaks.