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by danShumway 2576 days ago
Domain-based filtering isn't enough to block all ads and trackers -- unless Pi-hole is doing more than just acting as a DNS server nowadays; I haven't checked in a while.

In particular, using Pi-hole forces you to decide globally what domains you'll block -- so you can't (for example) block Twitter/Facebook on 3rd-party domains but allow it when you directly visit them. DNS blocking also can't handle individual URLs within a domain -- so you won't be able to block ads on sites like Youtube or Facebook.

Aside from lacking granularity for when domains are allowed or disallowed, Pi-hole also won't protect you from the majority of first-party tracking. That's less of a concern though because (at least for now) the V3 manifest isn't stopping extensions from blocking tracking cookies or disabling features like Canvas, so you can still rely on them for that.

Typically though, I advise people to prefer extensions like UMatrix and Ublock Origin, and to fall back on Pi-hole as a backup strategy when nothing else is available. It's useful (particularly to help with native apps and IOT devices), but I don't think it's a substitute for a good browser-based ad blocker.