If you swipe down from the top using two fingers it takes you directly to the settings drawer.

I guess it would be more akin to a “source code hosting service,” but that would imply that I intend to open it to the internet (which isn’t necessarily the case).

LibreTube uses the Material Design 3 design language, which, in my opinion, looks much nicer, more user friendly, and more responsive. NewPipe (and its forks) don’t even use the proper system calls for Picture In Picture.

I would consider GrapheneOS instead of iOS. GrapheneOS provides full compatibility with Android without Google, and you can optionally install Google Play Services. Apple is as bad as Google in some aspects.

As for your main questions, these are my suggestions:

• Email: Proton Mail or Tuta Mail
• Search Engine: DuckDuckGo or Mullvad Leta for search engines, or SearXNG for a metasearch engine
• Browser: GrapheneOS’s Vanadium browser
• YouTube: LibreTube for mobile or FreeTube for desktop
• Cloud Storage: There are many options, but a familiar option for you would be Proton Drive
• Photos: Aves Gallery or Gallery, with network permissions disabled

Most of these are Android-only, because iOS is still privacy invasive by nature. More software can be found on my list of software.

Cheers!

A beginner will choose what seems private, regardless of whether or not it actually is.

How the heck is TOR less secure than any of the vpns?

This isn’t a ranking of security. It is ranked based on the experience level at which people generally begin to start using certain software. They build on top of each other.

If you’re alive, you are asked for documents such as property records, taxes, etc. and if you refuse then bad things happen. If you fake your death, no more questions are asked and you can take on fake identities. In essence, faking your death takes your identity out of “the system”

Do I even want to get there

Only you can answer that.

or is that limited to journalists who have entire states trying to unalive them?

Pretty much, but if you want to give up all technology, work for yourself, and fake your death, then more power to you!

If anything, I love GrapheneOS for its “Network” permission toggle. It’s nice knowing that my keyboard (or any other unnecessary apps) can’t phone home.

First off, if you’re concerned about phone privacy, consider a custom OS for your phone that respects privacy such as GrapheneOS.

It’s easy to figure out that your device isn’t listening to a constant audio stream 24/7, since that would drain battery and send a lot of noticeable data over the network. However, it is entirely possible to listen for certain keywords as you mentioned, and send them encrypted with another seemingly legitimate packet. There’s no way to be 100% certain, but it is possible in theory without draining too much battery.

The steps you took are good, making sure that apps don’t have any permissions they don’t need. Privacy is a spectrum, so it’s not “all or nothing”. As I mentioned before, if you’re seriously concerned about mobile privacy and want a solution, you can get a custom operating system that can remove any privacy invasive elements. GrapheneOS also allows you to disable the camera and microphone system-wide (although this functionality is present on some other Android builds).

If it eases you any, a lot of these advertisements happen to be coincidence and trigger confirmation bias. It could be that those ads happened to show up by coincidence, or that advertisers managed predicted your interests, or that you got tracked by some other means while downloading the movie. The possibilities are nearly endless.