I have a question about the “extended privacy” function in the installations. If you use almost no Google apps (I have no g apps installed), you have very few trackers, that’s clear.
But I don’t want to do without my VPN app (my VPN provider).
To my surprise, I already see several trackers here - “Google Firebase analytics and itarable.com
Is it ok that the tracker app then controls the trackers, i.e. I can use some apps without hesitation and can be sure that Google trackers are prevented?
Generally speaking, I would say yes: If /e/OS with Advanced Privacy > “App Trackers” enabled realizes that an app tries to connect to a URL in its tracker database, it prevents the connection. It obviously cannot prevent connection to trackers that it does not know, or where the app uses a hard-coded IP address.
You may additionally check your VPN app on Exodus Privacy to see whether additional trackers are known (this is the same database that is used in App Lounge to see the list of trackers and for the privacy score).
Personally, I am a bit surprised that a VPN app does not at least use a self-hosted solution like Matomo to collect crash reports etc.
However, there may be another reason for the behaviour you have seen: Is your VPN a browser app? Then Advanced Privacy registers the trackers of the sites you visit? On the other hand, Advanced Privacy should not see any connections when you use a VPN…
You may share the name of your VPN app so that someone may help you further.
The only apps I see that don’t have any trackers are the open source ones not listed in the Google store. Just about every app that lists on the Google store has at least one typically two. I think they’re built into the development kits Google provides.
In any case advanced privacy will block trackers so I wouldn’t be overly concerned about seeing a couple in the VPN app or any other app you’re using. The apps I would avoid are the ones with bigger numbers of trackers. I’ve seen apps with tens of trackers, that’s getting suspect.