I have a friend who’s alcohol consumption has gotten out of control. Me and his other friends/family are planning an intervention and so I’ve been doing a lot of research/reading on the topic.

NEVER and I mean NEVER have I seen so many fucking ads for alcohol in my LIFE. Instagram? 15 ads in a half hour of scrolling reels. YouTube? Ads. Google results? Ads. Twitter? Ads.

It’s fucking everywhere and it’s SICK. I’m researching how to help someone stop drinking and I’m getting inundated with ads for anything from gin, beers, vodkas and more. I can’t even imagine having an alcohol issue and trying to find help for myself with the web being this way.

It’s fucking sick.

  • kamenLady@lemmy.eco.brEnglish
    302·
    10 months ago

    Sorry for spamming, i already wrote this in response to another comment, but i kind of find this important for everyone:

    First thing everyone should do on a new phone ( or old phone, any phone )

    1. go to Internet & Network Settings

    2. Enter “dns.adguard.com” for Private DNS

    3. Profit: never see ads anywhere on your phone. Not in apps and in no browser.

    It’s as simple as that. That’s all you need, in order too block ads globally.

    Iirc there are different DNS servers from adguard with custom filters. Some are more strict and others more loose on the blocking.

    This instruction is for Android, since it’s what i use, but I’m sure, similar setting exists in iOS.

    • whats_a_refoogee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      15·
      10 months ago

      It should be noted that setting Adguard as your DNS will allow Adguard to track the domains you visit. The latest info I can find is that a lot of their team is still located in Russia, which makes them susceptible to government demands regardless of their intentions.

      DNS adblocking should be the last resort. On Android there are many ways to do system wide local adblocking (with and without root). Don’t know about iOS. Alternatively you can do network level blocking with something like a pi-hole.

      • sndrtj@feddit.nlEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        What about not using any free services for this? Those are guaranteed to be scummy. I pay $2 a month for NextDNS.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.instituteEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        You can self-host it (e.g. on a raspberry pi) and point it to upstream DNS servers not associated with Adguard or Russia (e.g. Google DNS, Cloudflare DNS, OpenDNS, etc). I myself use the self-hosted version.