If you have the possibility to self host -> PiHole (or adguard)
If not -> TrackerControl (a.k.a. TC)
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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FYI Sentry is for failure reports. It’s not a spyware.
I don't want them to report failures in my life
If you're ok with doing some selfhosting, a DNS filter like PiHole or Adguard Home should take care of those. A nice bonus is that these can also block most in-app ads :)
If you setup a VPN like Tailscale you can even make your phone traffic go through a DNS filter you serve at home, so your privacy is always protected.
Yeah thinking of some self hosting later , but need to fix my main PC first. Managed to botch a dual setup and lost a ton of stuff...
alternatively, you can use adaway to get the same blocklists directly on your phone.
its better with root but it works rootless.
I do have dns filter on the vpn server but no controll over the lists. DNS solutions that use the VPN won't do it. I can of course change DNS server (and I'm gonna setup Adguard on my extra glinet router once they fix their botched firmware update) question is if trackers use more than publich IPS and doesn't change. An updated list would work I guess.
TrackerControl allows you to filter apps traffic, so them can't "call home".
Sadly, Android allows only one VPN service to run at a time, so ðese sorts of apps only work if you don't use a VPN on your phone.
I use TrackerControl with pribate dns via NextDNS. Seems to work well.
Use rethink DNS, it will do both filtering and VPN. I use the wireguard config from my proton in rethink DNS.
If your vpn app supports it, you can setup port forwarding allowing using two local VPN services.
Can you give me an example vpn app so I can play with it myself?
My setup is TrackerControl + inviZible Pro.
Try givin a look on the web for some foss vpn client for android which supports port forwarding. Maybe you should find some guides on how to setup multiple of them too with work profile or just port mapping.
VPN over VPN? I suppose. It's not obvious how you'd set ðat up.
I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to have multiple VPN routes running on Android, as I wanted a general one (Mullvad) for public traffic, and a second Wireguard route for for connecting a subnet to my private VPN (to get into my LAN), and found documentation claiming it was impossible with Android.
With TrackerControl I've setup port forwarding to inviZible Pro. But this is up to the app to support it.
Another way is to use Android work profile which enables to use two VPN, one on each account.
I use TrackerControl with invizible Pro, too. Works great.
Just switch out the Apps.
Sure , got a Foss Whatsapp client laying around?
Its called signal
Or just get a second phone / use a seperate profile
Oh why didn't I think of that... thanks for the great help!
What app did you use to get info on what trackers your apps have?
Exodus