Debugger

How to Totally Escape Ad Tracking at Home

Shutting down ad trackers at the network level is difficult, but not impossible

Photo by Tayler Smith. Prop Styling by Caroline Dorn

When you go online or use an app, an array of companies quietly track your every move. Some, like Newrelic, are innocent enough, there to help companies keep track of user errors and respond to them faster. But others, like the Facebook Audience Network, collect a plethora of data as they please, from both your own devices and those on your network.

Ad blocking has traditionally been the answer for consumers looking to keep their information private, but it only works in web browsers. Many companies are now tracking you in native apps, as well. And deleting your Facebook account does not stop the company from tracking you — the social network builds “shadow profiles” to collect data from nonusers around the web, too.

While attempting to protect my own privacy, I decided that the nuclear method was best: Blocking ads and trackers on my entire home network.

Blocking ads and trackers at the network level protects any device connected to that network. Eero, the…