Question about app trackers

Using /e/OS User Queries
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app trackers

i recently installed the app ‘Photo Exif Editor”.

according Exodus is has 7 trackers.(AppMetrica, AppMonet, Google Admob, Google Crashlytics, Google Firebase, IronSource and Yandex Ad)

after installation e/OS blocks 4 trackers. (appMetrica, Google Adservices, Google Firebase and Google Marketing Platform)

what happened to the other 3 trackers ?

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You must understand that /e/ doesn’t block trackers but tracker initiated network activities. So when trackers are not listed in Advanced Privacy this can have two meanings:

  • they have indeed not been recognized (this means: they are still active)
  • they haven’t been active in the period (some trackers react on events, especially crashes)

I generally avoid installing apps with trackers whenever I can, even when they are probably blocked by the OS. The trackers can still collect data and do other unwanted activity on the device, consume CPU power and waste energy. Avoiding these apps is also a statement: I don’t want to support this culture and to give these developers a download.

You could use ExifEdit (from F-Droid) instead.

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Some firebase domains are not blocked afaik for reasons I do not know. (would it break functions of apps?)

Maybe some share the same or similar domain so they get blocked likewise but do not appear in the list (similar to the above mentioned network activity…)

You may check by temporarily using a vpn based dns-blocker on top, like e.g. personaldnsfilter, applying very strict blocklists and see what it filters out… (firebase for instance… least in my installation it does so)

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Thanks fort clarifying that.

Followed up on your suggestion to use ExifEdit, looks like this will work