Edit: Below is my original post, will not edit original in an attempt to be transparent as it provides context to those comments. Several good comments outlining what could be going on were posted as well. Seems the list of “know to track” from that service (Google) is very different from what was actually requested by this specific app. 36 attempts so far were made, but DDG does not specify of what type.
Original: So this seems like a pretty intense level of tracking. Certainly much more than any of the other lemmy apps I have tried. I get advertisements, totally fine with them earning money, but it took me by surpise.
If I look at the privacy policy, it certainly does not indicate to me this level of monitoring.
For the record, I am not implying deception on the devs part at all, I am sure things are spelled our correctly in the privacy policy. Just wasn’t sure everone was aware of the extent.
Cheers!
Edit: some people are implying I was trying to mislead with my title. For clarity I am using duckduckgo track blocker “App Tracking Protection” and it states “Tracking Attempts” https://ibb.co/DzWMFMy
The list on the original post is what data is being attempted to pull and the protection stopped as far as i can tell.
Edit 2: updated title to be more clear. Wasn’t aware I could even do that!
This is misleading. You’re looking at a list of what Google’s Analytics can track, not what Sync is specifically using it for.
In fact, misleading is putting it lightly. Your title extrapolates a list of known Google tracking behavior into something that not only Sync is doing, but that you’ve claimed it attempted to do.
If you’re actually going to do posts like these, at least understand the tools you’re using. DuckDuckGo can intercept DNS requests to analytics servers and block them, but it can not know the contents or the data being shared. This list is a default list that it would show for any app using Google’s Analytics, regardless of the data behind it. This applies to any other tracker it shows you, by the way.
Cheers mate The track blocker says “attempts” pretty clearly I wasn’t trying to mislead
https://ibb.co/DzWMFMy
Please do not make bold claims about mechanisms you do not understand, specially under accusatory pretenses.
DuckDuckGo showing “attempts” means that the app tried to resolve Google’s Analytics server and was blocked by DuckDuckGo. That’s it. The list itself is application agnostic and irrelevant - borderline fearmongering to make users more scared and willing to use the blocker, but that’s besides the point.
As I’ve explained in the previous comment, DuckDuckGo can not intercept nor detect the actual data behind these requests, and as such, it can not differentiate between any item on that list - which means you can not claim Sync is collecting this data. Which is why you noticed the privacy policy doesn’t mention any of those things - because they’re not being tracked.
This seems completely over-the-top when the person is literally trying to have a discussion about something that they have admitted to not knowing much about. “Attempts” is the terminology being used by the DDG app, which explains why OP is using the same wording.
This whole thread has a weird, defensive and “reinforce my purchase” type of vibe. LJDawson has been pretty transparent about this and has worked hard on the app, so I sorta get it, but come on.
“In fact, misleading is putting it lightly.”
How about we all calm down before starting to throw personal accusations out there?
I don’t have to interpret their post in good faith when the title isn’t a question or invitation for discussion, it’s a direct claim that Sync attempted to collect this data.
Then, the body directly claims that the data collection is fairly large and that the privacy policy didn’t directly mention all these categories being collected, once again suggesting the app is indeed collecting everything.
It’s one thing to see this, get scared and ask if it’s true. It’s a whole different thing to make a bold accusatory post. I’ve seen Reddit backlash from false posts like these claiming secret data collection go nuclear before the developer could even wake up the next morning to have a chance at explaining things. This OP’s post had over 30 upvotes in mere minutes after being made - during the day the app launched publicly.
What personal accusations? Please quote the exact portion of any of my comments that contain any personal information or claim about OP. “Misleading” means what it means - it’s an impersonal word.
Thank you for spelling it out so clearly. I’ve seen the screenshot from DDG a few times today but I didn’t know how the underlying mechanics of it worked. Now I even notice at the top it says “known to collect:”.
Yep! And please keep in mind I’m not saying the app is bad. I personally use a different, but similar in functionality, DNS blocker.
Their wording though… it’s definitely designed to scare users a bit.
Fair enought and thanks for that info.
I was mostly posting to get community feedback and thoughts, so I shared what I came across. Figured people out there would know way more about this the I.
It’s still misleading. It doesn’t say what information was attempted to be gathered those 28 times. It may very well have been 28 attempts to collect the same exact “Device orientation” over and over again (and it most likely is something simple like that).
Correct! I just updated title and added this info to the top of my post.
It’s still not a listing of sync attempts only what google analytics is known to collect. If you bothered to count the items you’d have notice it’s 33 items listed yet only 28 attempts were made.
It’s pretty trivial to see that list is impossible for sync since it does not even have location permissions
Are you able to see what domains were blocked? Other posters have suggested that these attempts are blocked by DNS. If we could see the domains that were queried, we could have a better understanding of what’s being attempted here.
My speculation would be that we would see google owned domains, but I don’t know