Most of the data passing it are encrypted: https, SSH.
Cutting off the phone-home requests is best done on respective devices: you can run firewalls on most desktops and laptops, and even phones. Рhones often go online via GSM or LTE, without passing through the home router.
While a proxy like pihole can be helpful sometimes, cutting off tracking and ads is done best by browser extensions and by using open-source clients, where available.
The best the home router should do is to not be vulnerable to exploits, and otherwise up-to-date, and fully under the owner's control That's why my home router runs openwrt.
"... cutting off tracking and ads is best done by browser extensions ..."
What if the browser vendor, who is also a data collector, requires user to log in or otherwise identify herself before she can use extensions.
A home "gateway" is a computer running a kernel with IP forwarding enabled that is being used as the point of egress from the home network to the internet. That is a broad definition and allows for much creativity. That is what I mean by the term "gateway". As such, a gateway can, both in theory and in practice, do anything/nothing that "desktops and laptops, and even phones" can do. Relying solely on pre-configured "limited/special purpose" OS projects as a replacement for DIY and creativity in setting up a gateway was not what I had in mind, but is certainly an option amongst many others.
Don't use such a browser then! Firefox is pretty good.
An on-device firewall can firewall individual processes and applications. An upstream / gateway firewall does not have such fine-grained control. That was my point.
Running stuff on my router is entirely possible, but I limit it to routing and running a wireguard endpoint. I prefer to run my private stuff in the confines of the home LAN.
I use a text-only browser for reading HTML. Many times I do even use a browser for making HTTP requests.
Truly one can use all these strategies, application-based, router-based, gateway-based, if they are available. They are not mutually exclusive. Personally I just would not feel like I can rely on extensions or other solutions tied to some software I do not compile myself. (I do edit and compile the text-only browser.)
All due respect to Firefox, but I have found compiling it is way too time and resource-intensive. It is way beyond what I need for recreational web use. Firefox users seem to rely on Mozilla to do the right things on their behalf. That is not the sort of "control by the user" I am after.
What is behind Mozilla. Online advertising money. Cannot really count on them to do what I want.
For me it has not. But it all depends on what sites one is interested in. Generally I do not tend to find much value in SPAs when I come across them. If there is some data accessed through the page that I really am interested in, I just fnd the endpoint and bypass the Javascript. Most sites posted to HN are not SPAs, do not require Javascript to read, and work perfectly for me. I can glean the information no problem, and fast. However I am interesting reading text not viewing graphics. Not every user has the same sensibilities.
I have always aimed to try them all and I will always try any new one I become aware of. I used Lynx from 1993 through the early 2000's, but since then I prefer Links from Charles University in Prague, with no graphics. It has the best rendering of HTML tables of any text-only browser, IMO. It has been the most stable for me at run-time and it is the source code I am most comfortable with, compiles quickly. There is a recent fork of Elinks 4.x someone has started that I have been watching. (Elinks is a fork of Links.) Not sure if it has been posted to HN yet. Currently it crashes too easily but some of the features he has added are good ideas, IMO.
Most of the data passing it are encrypted: https, SSH.
Cutting off the phone-home requests is best done on respective devices: you can run firewalls on most desktops and laptops, and even phones. Рhones often go online via GSM or LTE, without passing through the home router.
While a proxy like pihole can be helpful sometimes, cutting off tracking and ads is done best by browser extensions and by using open-source clients, where available.
The best the home router should do is to not be vulnerable to exploits, and otherwise up-to-date, and fully under the owner's control That's why my home router runs openwrt.