I haven’t had this happen personally, but are you allowed to edit your hosts file? I’m assuming those IP addresses are coming from DNS resolution, and if you hardcode those DNS entries to resolve to 127.0.0.1, it’ll stop the ads.
nslookup <ip address> should give you the domain names, if not there’s DNS logs in Event Viewer that should tell you.
I’d watch those folders, especially the UPLOAD_LOCATION, when it’s uploading. Are they being written? Do they persist, or are they being deleted? See if you can upload a single image through the web client, and observe that behavior too.
Of course they’ll say that to you on their platform.
If you file a deletion request, or complaint with a regulator, you should get a better response there.
I’ve learned a number of tools I’d never used before, and refreshed my skills from when I used to be a sysadmin back in college. I can also do things other people don’t loudly recommend, but fit my style (Proxmox + Puppet for VMs), which is nice. If you have the right skills, it’s arbitrarily flexible.
What electricity costs in my area. $0.32/KWh at the wrong time of day. Pricier hardware could have saved me money in the long run. Bigger drives could also mean fewer, and thus less power consumption.
Google, selfhosting communities like this one, and tutorial-oriented YouTubers like NetworkChuck. Get ideas from people, learn enough to make it happen, then tweak it so you understand it. Repeat, and you’ll eventually know a lot.