Sticking it to The Man
Or – my experiences with Virtual Private Networks and 3rd Party Blockers.
I am the type of person who tries to make it as hard as possible for corporations to track me. Chrome has never touched my Windows 10 PC. I’ve done what I’ve could to disable the telemetry and whatnot on Windows too. I’m using a fork of Firefox with some Tor hardening. So on and so forth.
But Android is harder to do that with. I’ve tried a few things and wanted to talk about them here.
DuckDuckGo [Browser] 3rd Party Tracking
DDG doin’ something good instead of weird.
The DDG Browser has a setting in it that filters third party cookies and telemetry by posing as a VPN on an Android Phone. It’s a hackier, less effective variant of what iPhones have built into them. This has been my default for years for two reasons. One, it most everything still works with it on. 2, it consumes negligible power.
And that’s what it does. Cookies and trackers from 3rd parties are blocked, but first party stuff goes thought. While I think uBlock Origin is more robust, this works with all apps on the phone. The actual browser is alright too. It’s what I use when I need Chromium for whatever reason. I have Chrome disabled.
Proton VPN (Free version)
Trustworthy for a freebie
I like Proton. While I don’t agree with everything they do, (the wallet app, etc.) by and large, they good for a corp. I use their mail, I use their cloud, etc. So I use their VPN. The VPN is nice because its free, looks nice, and generally stable. They have added more free countries, but made it so you can’t pick the server anymore, which is a shame. I don’t want to exit in the US.
It does have downsides though. A lot of apps do not like it. Honkai Star Rail won’t log in while it’s active. Most streaming services tell me to get fucked. Even some benign apps have issues while it’s on. It also seems to suck up the juice. If I leave it running on my phone, it gets to 65% far faster than without it.
I was going to upgrade to the paid tier during black friday, but my plus autorenewed before I could. Oh well.
Its the best free one imo, but you get what you pay for.
Orbot
It’s Shrektastic!
It’s Tor’s equivalent to a VPN app. I like Tor overall, but your milage may vary. The app is simple and lets you pick an exit node’s country.
LOTS of public wifis do not like it at all. I’ve tried to use bridges and sometimes they work, but sometimes they do not. It also seems to be a battery drain, and I’ve had to turn it off for a bunch of apps and they striaght up break trying to go through Tor.
Its good for specific things, but not as a daily driver.
Mullvad VPN
The Mull Mole(?) Does it Right
When mulling (pun intended) over not being able to get Proton Unlimited, I remembered Mullvad was a thing. I respect them for not doing sales ever. I did email customer service with some questions, and they were nice and helpful enough that I put $5 down to give it a shot.
What I’ve experienced so far I really like.
The apps are solid and simple, yet you can choose which city or node you want to exit from. Its speed is respectable. I was downloading Honkai Star Rail faster though it than a raw connection(????). The fact that it doesn’t need any kind of info to make an account is neat. Were I into crypto, they wouldn’t even have the name on my PayPal. Apparently it has a discount too? Sorry though, no funny money for me.
Also, very few apps seem to have a problem with it. HSR will log in, Sonic Forces Mobile will load the ads for getting crap eventually. That game is 80% Peppa Pig ads, so I guess that’s important. Actually, the only app I’ve had to use Split Tunneling with is the Playstation App. That means I don’t have to dick with turning it off and on for assorted apps.
Another great aspect is that it isn’t a battery drain. The difference between it and DDG is negligible. My phone’s battery isn’t that strong, so preventing additional drain is great.
There are probably downsides, but I haven’t run into them yet. I’ll be paying for more time.
##TL;DR
• DuckDuckGo Browser’s the best bet for free tracking blocking • Proton’s VPN service is good for free, but has downsides. Power consumption and apps blocking it being two of them. • Orbot is a great free tool, but be prepared to dick with it and make comprimises. • Mullvad VPN is paid, but is the best experience of the lot.
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