Ad Blocking is Cyber Security

For additional content, you can accomplish ad blocking in a number of ways. The ones that immediately spring to mind:
browser extension: most modern browsers have some extension framework available. I've been using ublock origin for a number of years with reasonable results
VPN: some VPNs include ad blocking as a side benefit to their primary function. Nord doesn't seem to block ads on all mobile apps or is at least inconsistent in my experience
Network packet filter/PiHole: this has been on my to-do list for a while. Catches network traffic that looks like ads before it even reaches your device. Most involved and least portable
- I've had some good results with NextDNS, as well
  
  I’ve been using NextDNS for over a year now and it’s great. Been using that with hagezi pro block list with great results and minimal breakage.
- The only option (other than mitm-ing yourself and stripping ads from the html maybe) for blocking first party ads or spoofed first party ads is ublock origin on firefox
  dns filtering can only block domains, ublock does full cosmetic filtering.
  
  Ive been using DNS filtering for years and many sites actually collapse the advert space when it’s not used, and while a plug-in certainly can improve the UI, the DNS blocking also disables the resulting tracking, the network requests still happen with the plugins.
  Additionally DNS filtering happens outside of a browser as well, so will block ads in literally every app as well, when setup correctly it’s also device independent.
  When I still ran my own PiHole, there where days where as much as 60% of the traffic was adverts and trackers.
  DNS filtering also extends to blocking things like malware and spam domains
- A Pi-hole is easy to set up if you already have a Raspberry Pi and a router that supports changing the DNS (I had one that was rented from an ISP that didn't).
  
  Love my pihole. Didn’t help with YouTube, which is the latest ad scandal.
  
  It is. And even if you wanted to localize it to specific devices, there's also a standalone version. I'm using it on my laptop with Arch and it's pretty good. Adblocking on the go, or if you don't want (or can't) mess with the router for some reason.
- can you run pihole in VM? it would be practical for these weirdos that already use VM as a daily driver
  
  I believe so as long as your VM has an IP address reachable by the devices you want to use it for.
  I'm not sure if you'd want to employ it as your DHCP server though. You may get a chicken and the egg problem there.
  
  It was originally developed to run on a raspberry pi so most installers are Linux based. There is no installer for windows but you could run pinole on Docker Desktop in a VM.

YouTube can go to hell. Frontends can still escape anti-adblock measure.

On top of that, nobody should be forced to watch gambling or alcohol ads.
- not to throw more shade at twitch, but they have a strict no gambling policy or atleast no unregulated crypto gambling policy... but they have ads for gambling sites on their own website before you watch a stream.
- I shouldn’t be force to watch fucking anything and yet I’m constantly bombarded with ads fucking everywhere. They fly ads off planes for Christ sake.
  We have a right to peace

Ofc it is. You don't just block ads, you also block trackers and so on. I think of it as a privacy thing no matter what jackarse says that it's piracy.

iOS users have plenty of options here too
AdGuard Pro (paid)
AdGuard DNS (free)
other free dns blockers - NextDNS, ControlID etc
Safari addons
browsers with blocking built in (eg brave)
VPNs with ad blockers built in
DNS and VPN blocks will work on most apps and all browsers.
I prefer Asguard dns and then Safari extension or Brave
- I would not trust adguard as it is a russian company that nobody knows what it does to your data
  
  They are locsted in Cyprus, and in fairness, they've got a much better reputation than most privacy/security companies out there.
  Plus, depending on the service, adblocking is done locally.
  
  I beleive its in Cyprus now - but fair point - NextDNS might be a better option in that case

Run a pihole at home, and VPN into your network. No ads, no privacy issues, and you can access your network devices 'locally.' if you don't need a ton of speed, it's the best thing you can do for privacy and control.

I'm a noob, can you elaborate?
- Scam and Viruses come with ads very often, they also contain a shit load of tracking.
- Lots of scams and even computer viruses will be sent out though the ad network so it is best to just block all ads so you don't have to interact with potentially bad add.
- Ads are common attack vectors. Blocking them is a matter of security.