While I hate big tech and social media, there’s no getting away from wanting to read websites and watch things on YouTube. Here’s my adblock and privacy stack that means I don’t see most ads on websites and don’t see YouTube ads on iOS. It’s also an easy to install list suitable for less technical people – there are countless other options for the more technical folks or if you are fine paying monthly fees for ad blocking DNS etc.

Adblock app

https://getadblock.com/en/iOS/

Brave Browser

I know there’s controversy about the CEO and it comes with some ‘sponsored news’ BS but it’s easy to turn off. Uses all the Chrome addons so is super convenient if you’re used to Chrome and need addons for password managers etc.

https://brave.com/

Chromium is also free and doesn’t use Google services but is more effort to install and update, and DuckDuckGo privacy browser is also out there but I haven’t used it much.

Proton VPN – free plan

https://protonvpn.com/

Optional extra level of defence – PiHole

I’ve got Raspberry Pi single board computer that runs the PiHole system for an extra level of ad blocking. This isn’t wired up since I moved to the boat however and I still don’t see any web or YouTube ads

Summary

A few free apps can block most ads on websites and YouTube, as well as being easy to install for less technical folks.

More thoughts on the ethics of blocking ads, using a PiHole and other strategies like using 3rd party front ends for YouTube coming later.