[imwjl]

This is complicated because all the popular platforms and plenty of services hold and share private data.

If you use a VPN it's not hard to lean what it is and end points. One of the security platforms I use alerts me to people using them. It's not rocket science to hire someone at a low wage and figure out the subnets they use. That data can then be used for good or bad.

You can't use a lot of products, do shopping, travel, and for a lot of people do task for payroll, banking, and health care without giving up private info.

Also it might be appropriate for some to rethink or know how different Microsoft is now than at other times in their history. Their huge cloud infrastructure for businesses, professional use and enterprise has to meet standards so you have decent or down right good privacy if you pay to use a product vs do the free model.

If you use Mozilla vs a commercial browser and synchronize your settings you let someone else store private information just as you do with other services.

On search engines, I've used Bing much more in the past few years and purposely keep it as the default for one of the two systems I use all day. There are a lot of times when I get better results if not different results.

Use search engines you like. If privacy is your concern stop payment on your Internet and telephony services. Only use Internet others' open connections where you'll have a chance at plausible deniability. Have fun keeping your mishmash of VPN services straight and don't forget the articles that could have you question using TOR.