Benefits of Privoxy / web proxies?

[NicoleCtrl]

So I just installed a web proxy for the first time, Privoxy, and I was happily surprised that I got it running with minimal time and effort. But I'm still kind of uninformed about the benefits of Privoxy.

In tutorials and comments I keep seeing that it protects against ads, pop-ups, and cookies, but I was already using NoScript, Adblock Plus, HTTPS Everywhere and Cookie Whitelist on Firefox... so does Privoxy add anything useful or is it just redundant given my previous measures?

At first I thought a web proxy would conceal my IP or something but all I see people emphasize about Privoxy is ad/cookie/pop-up blocking... generally speaking, what are the other out-of-the-box or minimal-effort-required benefits?

[vasa1]

...

At first I thought a web proxy would conceal my IP or something but all I see people emphasize about Privoxy is ad/cookie/pop-up blocking...
Could you please cite a couple of references for "but all I see people emphasize about Privoxy is ad/cookie/pop-up blocking..."?

[NicoleCtrl]

That's what was mentioned in two YouTube tutorials I saw, plus some of the comments. Wikipedia mentions ad removal and "filtering", and says it's based on Internet Junkbuster which is a "web proxy that can block ads and cookies".

Just seeking the community's opinion on if it's redundant or even necessary given what I already use on my single computer. Or is this more for sysadmins who will manually tweak it extensively?

[vasa1]

Did you check out http://config.privoxy.org/user-manual/introduction.html#FEATURES ?

While you certainly can accomplish many of Privoxy's functions by installing extensions for your browser, the nice thing is that Privoxy is "outside" your browser and so for those of us who like to have more than one browser, setting up Privoxy helps. The flip side is that Privoxy is quite nerdy if you want to do more than just ad blocking.