There are free programs that make life much easier on the internet, which ones you choose depends a lot on the browser you use (Edge, Firefox, etc.). Ublock, Adblock, Ghostery, there are many options that do many of the same things but a few extras. There are in addition to your basic virus protections/data scans that you should be doing on a regular basis.
I'm getting a bit to the tinfoil hat/conspiracy theorist about my lack of privacy on the internet. I do all sorts of things that my husband doesn't bother with and that's ok -- we have a firewall between our systems. I use Firefox myself and have my system pretty locked down with several programs -- it isn't so easy for me to go look at stuff but I don't pick up viruses in return. For example, I can click on a link and I get a screen that basically says "your protection levels say not to let you in, do you really want to risk it?" I usually choose to back away and do other research. I can tell you it makes a huge difference when I'm browsing here on my home screen or when I pop on someone else's computer to show them something here.
The "free" internet is paid for by the transference of data, including data about myself I don't wish to share with people who wish to sell me things. There are some sites I choose to "white list", that is, let them still get some financial consideration from my web traffic. There are other sites I support through paypal donations, it's Wikipedia time btw so that means I probably should be shooting Missing Fabrics and a couple other sites some bucks.