AD1184
Celestial
This is a thread for anyone to contribute to listing any tools that they use for preventing the display of adverts and enhancing privacy when browsing the web and using mobile devices. I have been meditating recently on the pervasive nature of advertising and how much I loathe it, and I am determined to minimize the amount of advertising I have to see.
At the moment I use Mozilla Firefox as my browser. Firefox claims to have many privacy features built-in. I set my browser to send out a 'do not track' request, although I believe that compliance with this request is voluntary on the part of websites.
I use the uBlock extension for Firefox (also available for other web browsers), which blocks many (but not all) adverts on websites. With this extension, adverts on Youtube for example are blocked in the browser.
I also recently discovered the Privacy Badger extension (also available on other browsers) from the Free Software Foundation. This blocks tracking elements on webpages that track you across sites that you visit.
As a second, back-up browser, for websites that do not function correctly with Firefox, I use Brave. Brave is based on Chromium, the open source project underpinning Google Chrome, and it has ad-blocking built-in.
I am also working on setting up a Pi-hole server for ad blocking on my network using a Raspberry Pi computer to act as host. The way that this works is that you install the Pi-hole software on the computer, and set it as the DNS server on all the other machines on the network on which you want to block ads. All internet requests are thus routed through the Pi-hole device and the software filters out advertising. This has the benefit of not just blocking adverts in the browser, but in apps outside the browser, like Smart TV apps and mobile apps when you are connected to your network over wi-fi. I will tell you how I get on with this when I finish setting it up. Raspberry Pis are in short supply at the moment, but I have several lying around that are not doing anything. You can use a Raspberry Pi Zero model, which is the cheapest, with some accessories. The Zero W, with wi-fi, costs $10US when it is available. The non-wi-fi version costs $5, but you would need a method of connecting it to the network, such as with a USB-to-Ethernet dongle, which itself will probably cost more than $5. Plus you need a USB power supply and a micro-SD card at the minimum. You also need to be a little tech-savvy and confident with using computers to set it up.
pi-hole.net
At the moment I use Mozilla Firefox as my browser. Firefox claims to have many privacy features built-in. I set my browser to send out a 'do not track' request, although I believe that compliance with this request is voluntary on the part of websites.
I use the uBlock extension for Firefox (also available for other web browsers), which blocks many (but not all) adverts on websites. With this extension, adverts on Youtube for example are blocked in the browser.
I also recently discovered the Privacy Badger extension (also available on other browsers) from the Free Software Foundation. This blocks tracking elements on webpages that track you across sites that you visit.
As a second, back-up browser, for websites that do not function correctly with Firefox, I use Brave. Brave is based on Chromium, the open source project underpinning Google Chrome, and it has ad-blocking built-in.
I am also working on setting up a Pi-hole server for ad blocking on my network using a Raspberry Pi computer to act as host. The way that this works is that you install the Pi-hole software on the computer, and set it as the DNS server on all the other machines on the network on which you want to block ads. All internet requests are thus routed through the Pi-hole device and the software filters out advertising. This has the benefit of not just blocking adverts in the browser, but in apps outside the browser, like Smart TV apps and mobile apps when you are connected to your network over wi-fi. I will tell you how I get on with this when I finish setting it up. Raspberry Pis are in short supply at the moment, but I have several lying around that are not doing anything. You can use a Raspberry Pi Zero model, which is the cheapest, with some accessories. The Zero W, with wi-fi, costs $10US when it is available. The non-wi-fi version costs $5, but you would need a method of connecting it to the network, such as with a USB-to-Ethernet dongle, which itself will probably cost more than $5. Plus you need a USB power supply and a micro-SD card at the minimum. You also need to be a little tech-savvy and confident with using computers to set it up.
Pi-hole – Network-wide Ad Blocking
pi-hole.net
