And to be clear, every other big tech company operates on this same logic. "Tracking" to both Apple and Google is this really specific technical definition rooted in the same-origin policy of web browsers, in the same way that "malware" to Apple is "anything we didn't sign, including useful developer tools, third-party JIT compilers, and games that won't pay us 30% of their microtransaction sales". In fact, this sort of "we'll protect you from the competition's - and ONLY the competition's - malfeasance" bullshit is why Google isn't allowed to block third-party cookies. The UK CMA is legally enshrining third-party cookies - at least in Google browsers - because all of Google's own privacy posturing with that was just to shut off the data flow in Chrome.
- get an officially supported phone with easily unlocked bootloader (which usually means: Pixel or OnePlus)
- get the LineageOS&MicroG bundle from https://download.lineage.microg.org, which should really be more advertised
- don't root your phone, because that'll definitely require more effort fuzzing around with Magisk and Zygote deny lists etc.
There are of course apps that won't work with MicroG, period. Anything requiring hard DRM (Netflix EDIT: according to below list, it's actually working now, but I cannot test), games (Pokemon Go for instance), also quite a few banking apps, so if you can't live without some of those, check beforehand for instance on
https://community.e.foundation/t/list-apps-that-work-or-do-n...
Not that I see many ads because I block them of course. I even use a pihole to filter all my android phone traffic and it's very effective against in-app ads on android. In most cases even the whole bar where the ads would have appeared is gone so the app uses the full screen space.
You also get the benefit of weekly security updates over the rather irregular ones with LOS4microg.
If you use network locations, unfortunately that still requires LOS4microg or the microg installer for Magisk module.
Usually, Google would determine this location based on its database of networks and there's no way to set another location provider without installing microg as a system app or patching Android.
The microg installer I mentioned [1] does this configuration so you can use microg as your network locations provider.
https://github.com/nift4/microg_installer_revived?tab=readme...
If it results in you buying a T-shirt, it might have been more relevant to you than an ad for something you didn't need. But if it results in you, say, not voting, that would also be considered a success.
There's an old saying in advertising: "I know I'm wasting half of my advertising dollars. I just don't know which half".
The main point of targeted advertising is to avoid wasting money showing ads to people who will almost certainly not purchase your product, and redirect the money to ads shown to people who are more predisposed to purchasing your product.
Examples of the former include showing ads for Depends to teenagers, or for McDonalds happy meals to the elderly. Examples of the latter would be gaming PCs for people who own lots of video games.