• Teal@piefed.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    23 hours ago

    Some choices to help would be to avoid using precise location for weather apps. Course is usually very good unless you’re a weather tracking hobbyist. If you’re not using ad blocking it’s never a bad time to start.

    Ad blocking in browser is good but combined with a DNS service that offers block lists like Hagezi’s options it’s great. These lists can block a lot of tracking and telemetry data and not just the ads themselves. ControlD and NextDNS are two solid options. NextDNS doesn’t offer Hagezi Threat Intelligence Feeds specifically but have their own proprietary version. The company claims it covers much of Hagezi’s lists but I haven’t compared.

    ControlD has a 30 day free trial period with two plans either $20 or $40 per year. The $40 per year option has a future called Redirect. Their description “Spoof various web services, apps and platforms to geo-distributed proxy locations and appear to be in a different country”.

    NextDNS has a free plan that can be used on multiple devices. Paid is $20 per year for unlimited. The catch to the free plan is it’s good for 300,000 queries per month. If you get close they email a warning and if you go over the service will still work as a DNS but without the blocking. It will automatically start again the next cycle.

    Here’s the Hagezi GitHub but other lists are good too like OISD and AdGuard lists.

    https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists

    I use Ultimate but that may be too restricted for some. It will break websites and apps like FaceBook, WhatsApp, Instagram. If you use those a slightly less strict list a better choice. You’ll still get protection but there’s a balance to everyone’s needs so do read up on each list and what makes sense for you.

    All that wrapped in a trusted VPN and you’re doing pretty well. Nothing is perfect and if a government power wants to know where you are this isn’t going to stop them. For me that’s not what this is for. I use this stuff against the ads and tracking crap everywhere. I’m not trying to hide and can’t really offer much regarding that.

    I’m maybe a bit over the top compared to some. If this all sounds crazy a simple ad blocker (AdGuard, uBlock Origin) in browser and course location for weather and anything else location based that makes sense is a solid start. You can always whitelist websites you wish to support via ad revenue if that’s an interest.

      • Teal@piefed.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        22 hours ago

        Yes they can be used with a PiHole. I don’t use one so I can’t offer much for set up. On the GitHub page each list version has various links depending on the format needed for where it will be used. For example, PiHole is under the Adblock format which works with (Pi-hole, AdGuard, AdGuard Home, eBlocker, uBlock Origin, Brave (only in aggressive mode), AdNauseam, Little Snitch Mini).

        In my research about this stuff I saw many people talking about these lists for their own home DNS set up. Good luck!

        • modus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          21 hours ago

          Awesome. Thanks. PiHole lists are pretty simple. They’re just plaintext.