I’ve been using Overcast (on IOS) for years and for the most part love it, but having explored the privacy reports in its settings, I’m wondering if there is any way to actually do something about all the trackers podcasts are using these days.
I’ve tried blocking the specific trackers with AdGuard DNS, but when I do that, the podcast refuses to play at all.
Using a VPN helps to obscure some of the gross invasively personal dynamic ads, but is pretending I’m in Amsterdam really the best I can do? Doesn’t feel like it’s actually addressing the problem :/
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Idk if it’s available for iOS, but I really like AntennaPod. I also use Kasts on desktop (GNU/Linux), and I self-host a gpodder instance to keep my subscriptions synced.
Even AntennaPod connects to trackers in order to download some podcats. It’s how some of those hosts are set up. Although I hope that with an app like AP it shouldn’t be easy for advertisers to use that data to profile you, but I don’t know.
When you get ads in another language that you don’t understand, you know you’re winning
From hearing the developer of Overcast talk about this issue, it seems that hiding your IP is really all you can or need to do, as that’s what the dynamic ad services use to track you
Overcast probably is the most private client. The creator has a podcast called Accidental Tech Podcast. He has spoken several times about collecting only the minimum information to make the app work. He says he simply does not want the responsibility of keeping the data safe, and does not do targeted ads.
I know where you’re coming from. Right now the way many of podcasts’ audio files are served is via HTTP CDNs. The podcast client fetches the RSS feed, then fetches the linked-to audio file. The VPN, as you say, just changes the source address of that request.
What we could work on is reducing the number of requests to those CDNs.
One idea: A service which serves a mirror of the podcast feed and audio files. Users would need to manually enter podcast feed URLs into their client, rather than select the podcast from a convenient in-app search. You’d have to trust the service operator isn’t collecting and sharing its usage data.
Going further, we could use Bittorrent to distribute episodes between mirrors. Mirrors could subscribe to a RSS feed of torrents for particular shows.
I could imagine some community-run effort in this space.
Podverse, an open source cross platform freemium podcast player
Not really. Even if you use something foss like AntennaPod, it still makes calls to tracking services. I don’t know how it works, but it seems that’s how those podcast services are set up and most won’t play otherwise.
Guess you can only use vpn or tor to be completely private, and preferably just use web sites instead of apps.
BeyondPod is what I have been using for a bunch of years now. If you don’t pay for it, it will show you ads but purchasing it removes that. It is only on Android though.
