Privacy Guides @lemmy.one TheTwelveYearOld @lemmy.world 2 mo. ago

How do you filter ads and trackers outside of a browser while still using a VPN service?

This is straightforward with browser addons like uBlock Origin where you can add and choose blocklists, but I did searches for doing so system wide and using a VPN but didn’t find clear answers. I could use a DNS service that provides blocklists but isn’t it best practice to leave DNS to the VPN provider? I looked up blocklists and VPNs but didn’t find relevant results.

On Android, I didn’t find any apps that let you filter blocklists and using your own VPN other than Rethink, but the blocklists feature requires using Rethink’s DNS.

So what’s the best way to filter ads and trackers on both 3rd party apps and on OS’s like Android (specific Samsung phones) while still using a VPN?

16 comments

A number of VPNs have anti-tracking/adblocking features, but idk how well they work -- I refuse to use an OS with OS level ads, so I never see non-browser ads
- I guess that's on a PC? Or isn't there any iOS or Android app on your smartphone which is either showing in-app adds or just simply hooked up to adtech by trackers?
  
  I'm on Graphene with nearly all FOSS apps
https://pi-hole.net/

Also some vpns, such as proton VPN, have adblock.
- Permanently Deleted
  
  Correct, all VPN applications override the DNS server of any system it's installed on.
NextDNS
On Android I use AdAway (available on F-Droid or GitHub) and I don't ever see any ad anywhere. On my home PC I use PiHole.
- That doesn't work with a VPN (unless you have root)
  
  Oh, I'm rooted, I didn't know that.
AdGuard supports your scenario with AdGuard adblocker + AdGuard VPN. But it’s a paid solution.
On Android, I didn’t find any apps that let you filter blocklists and using your own VPN other than Rethink, but the blocklists feature requires using Rethink’s DNS.

You probably missed it but you can totally use rethink's block list without rethink's DNS (system DNS or Wireguard).

It's called On-device blocklist
- I installed the app from FDroid and it does in fact have on-device blocklists.
  
  I did a search and found this comment, https://reddit.com/r/rethinkdns/comments/1f7ydjo/git_vs_fdroid_google_play_app_version/
  
  After v055b, we hit numerous bugs (and unbelievably difficult ones) in our WireGuard integration. Released v055c and subsequent versions to fix the most annoying bugs among them.
  
  We paused Play Store builds at v055e because each new version since has had its own glaringly annoying bugs (that were of course fixed in the subsequent versions). Why? Play Store brings in the most number of Rethink users (per our estimate), and we decided to halt publishing there until we can figure out how to stablize Rethink's feature-set affected by WireGuard.
  
  Pausing roll-out like this is a one-off.
  
  Typically, you can expect all flavours (GitHub / Website / Play Store & F-Droid) to be at the same version.
  
  If you're feeling particularly adventurous: You can temporairly seamlessly update (without having to reinstall) to the GitHub / Website version if you're currently using Rethink installed from the Play Store. And then later, when Play Store catches up, update from Play Store again.
  
  Thanks for the info ! I mostly download my applications directly from the source with Obtainium.
  
  However I didn't notice any bugs with wireguard recently. The 0.5.5n seems rather stable to me :).
  
  Glad you found it ! Hope it fill in the gaps you needed with RethinkDNS which is IMO rather complex and overall very customizable !
I just use NextDNS via the DNS-over-TLS (Private DNS) setting in Android
Invizible Pro can act as a VPN (Tor and l2P) and allows you to choose from a list of DNS servers.
If you are at home you can run the vpn on your router.

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