If you don’t use an adblocker, you should start. Unlike television advertising, Internet ad networks are designed to track you across the web. One big way you can defend yourself against this is to install a good adblocker, like uBlock Origin (but not that uBlock shit. uBlock Origin ).

That’s a good first step, but we can upgrade the blocking experience. If you want to really only get the essential traffic needed to get around on websites, learn to use “medium mode” (“Advanced Filtering”). This way you can block 3rd party JavaScript (code which executes in your web browser) and frames from being loaded. This filters out an amazing amount of junk, BUT it does require you to learn how to use the blocking feature better. It is not a “set-and-forget” option.

If you go into uBlock Origin’s settings, check “I am an advanced user” to get access to these additional options, which you can read about here: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Dynamic-filtering:-quick-guide

Screenshots for reference are in the link I posted, so the general guidance is like this: You want to globally block 3rd party JS and 3rd party frames. Press the “Lock” icon to save this preference. When you go to websites you will likely find things are broken, to varying levels of acceptance. If the website is broken and you cannot use it, you will want to find the domains which likely help serve the content you’re trying to access (common domains include CloudFlare, Fastly, and CDNs generally). You can set the rule to neutral to follow normal uBlock rules (i.e. if it’s loading something on the ad-list it will block it, otherwise allow it). If you’re very lazy you can set the rules to neutral for all 3rd party JS/frames on the current site you’re browsing. Remember, if you find the settings you want to keep press the lock.

That’s it. Stay safe from surveillance capitalism!