Flurry: What It Is and Why Block It
Learn about Flurry, Yahoo's analytics and ad platform, and why you should block it on your phone.
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What is Flurry?
Flurry is a mobile analytics, monetization, and advertising platform founded in 2005 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2014. Originally a premium apps company, Flurry pivoted to become a universal analytics service that tracks user interactions with mobile apps across iOS, Android, HTML5, and JavaME. At its peak, it analyzed 150 billion app sessions per month and claimed nearly 80% market share in mobile analytics after merging with Pinch Media.
Who operates Flurry?
After the acquisition, Flurry came under Yahoo! (now part of Verizon Media, which partners with Apple on Safari’s search engine). The platform was integrated into the company’s advertising services, using collected data to target in-app ads.
What does Flurry do with browsing data?
Flurry collects app usage data: when you open an app, its SDK records the session, time spent, in-app actions (like clicks or purchases), and device attributes (model, OS, language, approximate location). This data is used for:
- Analytics: Provide developers with engagement metrics, conversion funnels, and user segmentation (e.g., payers vs. non-payers).
- Advertising: Use user behavior to create “Personas” and display targeted ads in other apps or sites.
- Monetization: Help publishers sell ad space in their apps through real-time auctions.
Thus, Flurry tracks your behavior across multiple apps, building a profile of interests used for targeted advertising. This is considered tracking by privacy tools.
Why do privacy tools block Flurry?
Privacy tools, such as ad and tracker blockers, block flurry.com because it acts as a third-party tracker. By blocking Flurry, these tools prevent it from collecting browsing data, protecting your privacy. However, it’s important to understand the limitations of this block:
- Does not remove all ads: If an app serves ads from the same domain as the content, blocking Flurry may not remove those ads because they don’t rely on flurry.com.
- Does not hide your IP: Blocking Flurry does not prevent other trackers or the app itself from seeing your IP address. For that, you’d need a VPN or proxy.
- May break apps: Some apps may malfunction if they can’t reach Flurry, as it’s integral to their analytics and ad features.
Blocking Flurry is a privacy measure that reduces tracking, but it’s not a complete solution. For broader protection, consider a more comprehensive tracker blocker like hado99, which works on multiple fronts.