Besides what others have said basically asking “what is it that you’re trying to protect (from)?” I would say the main questions in terms of usage are, are you on a degoogled Android phone and are you using Linux on your Desktop yet?

Yea sure VPNs are nice but I personally often feel like I don’t want to have to hide behind someone else’s IP-Address just to add a layer of obfuscation to the data-collectors. If your browser is clean and working for you there is no need for a VPN (unless you need it for the sake of coming from a different geolocation). If your Operating System isn’t Open Source it can be assumed to be tracking you with or without a VPN.

There are definitely downsides (especially in terms of convenience) to using Android without Google on it. If those inconveniences are too much for you (as you are alluding to in your described hassles) then it’s probably just a question of which desire is stronger. That for certain privacy or that for ease of use.

let me ask this: what is your threat model? Don’t tell me, ask yourself that and work through it if you haven’t already.

Going full 100% and trying to become a shadow overnight if a great recipe for burning yourself out and not trying. Instead look at your specific threat model and work on the biggest things one step at a time. Make it a journey and only take a new step once you’re comfortable with the last.

Psychologically speaking I think about the situation as

• a learning process rather than a destination (when you mention “perfect” that’s a warning sign)
• a spectrum rather a binary position (even a king back centuries ago or a rich CEO or a powerful politician today has limited privacy, so it’s about moving positively over that spectrum)
• a worthwhile adventure helping to better learn about other things (e.g psychology, technology, politics) rather only costs

So… yes in fine it’s the same, i.e “more hoops” to go through to do the same things, BUT when framed positively it’s genuinely more exciting, more empowering!

Blocking off Google’s/ Cloudflare’s IP space is pretty hard core TBH

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First of all, don’t waste your precious time enjoying life with privacy worrying and fear. It’s just not worth it.

I don’t know why, but I get the impression the device you are struggling to make more private is a phone. If that’s the case, the extent to which you can make things work is indeed very limited, so don’t try to push it too hard.

You could use a tool like a firewall to have a more high-level control over all apps, like blocking them all and only allowing a few.

This may be less overwhelming than trying to block and contain each app individually. Now, you will still need to allow some Google stuff to have a Google phone work properly (to use the Play Store for example). If you want to go further, I’d suggest trying another OS other than Android, but that may make your phone even less compatible with what you are relying on, so it may be a better idea to instead try it on an old phone first.

On a PC, you have more freedom. Instead of trying to block everything from Google, for instance, you can rely on a separate browser profile (or Firefox Containers if that’s inconvenient) for things that really need Google (e.g. Meet, work/school using Google Apps, whatever) and in your main browser profile you can rely on alternatives. For example, instead of trying to access YouTube behind a Google blocking extension, you could use Invidious or a dedicated app like FreeTube.

I hope you can feel more at ease with the sense of being watched and tracked online, but remember that’s not worth loosing your best moments for if it ends up just causing more distress to you.

uBlock Origin and Canvas Blocker in Firefox, not using gmail, youtube-login (there’s apps, bookmarks that can store your favorites) and you’re mostly fine.

Custom ROM with f-droid, gmaps-alternative, if you’re in an adventourous phase.

There’s no perfect, only good enough.

Every blocked ad and cookie is a small victory. They hate you for it. Be proud of that.

Privacy is a spectrum, not dichotomy. It is enough, imo, to reduce the amount of usage of google/amazon services significantly instead of blocking it.

You don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing. People saying “define a threat model” are right.

Figure out what you’re trying to accomplish.

The first thing to realise is that for you, and the overwhelming majority of us, digital privacy is not an existential threat. It is an ethical dilemma where you need to sit down and personally work out what is important to you and how many sacrifices you are willing to make in order to achieve that, similar to how people make choices regarding ethical consumerism or their diet. This is commonly referred to as “threat modeling” in the privacy space.

Take it slowly, you don’t need to rush to your destination overnight. Just do things in little steps so the problems you encounter are more manageable and not consuming all your free time. This is an extremely common problem for newcomers to digital privacy, quite likely driven by needless fear mongering from YouTube grifters and overly paranoid people who don’t understand the concept of threat modeling.

You need to define a threat model before you go any further.

Focus on high value targets. Getting all your friends on Signal, off Discord, on Lemmy, off Reddit, on GrapheneOS, off Apple. You don’t need to micro.

I’m figuring this kind of thing out too. I’m taking a few steps in directions that I can, like using duckduckgo, migrating off of gmail, using this instead of twitter and alternative Reddit. Trying to enjoy blogs on the smoll web. The hardest part was family. I still have to use WhatsApp since that’s the one platform my family collectively uses. But I keep it on my botnet phone which I keep around for work. I still have one gmail but its main purpose is for backup and when I’m using YouTube. I’ve stopped keeping content tied to it, and I’ve stopped posting myself on social media. Making a website instead. Idk. You reach an age and social media apps stop being a fun way to connect with your peers, and becomes a liability.

Privacy is a life style. Just improve your habits and keep up with current best practices.

For the issues you are encountering specifically, you just need to start finding Foss replacements.

You can proly replace most things but not all.

And somebody pointed out, you will connecting to mega corps service if you want shit to work. They backed them self into infrastructure. That’s how it works.