I'm working on a system-wide desktop ad-blocker and privacy guard called Zen (for almost 2.5 years now): https://github.com/irbis-sh/zen-desktop

Working on it has been a joy as ad-blocking tech touches so many aspects of software engineering - from systems and security to the intricacies of JS environments in browsers.

Benefits-wise, system-wide filtering disables ads and tracking not just in browsers, but desktop apps as well (which you'll be amazed how much they do). It's especially relevant now as Google is re-activating their efforts to hinder ad-blockers by killing Manifest V2 in Chrome. So much of tech is actively bleeding cash on AI right now, which means the efforts to screw over users will only accelerate. This makes something that sits at the network level indispensable imo.