They are not open source though; sorry I didn’t see the sub.

HDO Box, Onstream, BeeAnime are quite good. You don’t need debrid or a VPN for them as they’re not torrenting.

Cloudflare just checks for bot activity and AWS is just a hosting provider. They don’t use data for ads or sell it to anyone.

You can escape the big tech tracking by installing uBlock Origin in your browser, and if you use their services, disabling personalised ads and search/activity history in their accounts.

Buying a used Pixel lets you use the hardware without funding Google.

They chose Google because they are the only major OEM to allow you to relock the bootloader after installing a custom ROM. Samsung, Motarola, Huawei, Xiaomi etc all don’t.

They literally said that French police are being told to treat Pixel phones as suspicious, which if true, shows why they’re concerned.

Get a cheap phone like a Galaxy A36 for the trip, then install some VPNs with GFW circumvention like Windscribe, Proton and Psiphon before you go.

You should also get a roaming SIM card, preferably from an MVNO or an eSIM app do you don’t get rip-off prices.

Roaming SIM cards usually route traffic through their native network like a VPN which bypasses the GFW and gives you some extra privacy.

And once you get there, don’t say anything negative about the Chinese government or politics.

Watching YouTube videos and reading posts here about unrelated subjects is okay as long as you are using a roaming SIM card, a VPN or preferably both togther.

You can turn the telemetry and Recall off in the Windows settings. The privacy & security tab has everything.

Copilot can be uninstalled with Revo uninstaller like everything else.

You can remove it. There is actually an “IoT Enterprise LTSC” edition that is fresh from the start, though it may not support the very latest hardware so install 11 Pro then use Revo uninstaller’s Windows apps tab to remove the junk.

I wouldn’t recommend it. Just install ExplorerPatcher to get the old UI back.

The amount of telemetry is essentially the same and most of it can be turned off in the settings.

Go to your Google account settings and make sure that web & app activity, location history and ad personalisation are turned off.

Then uninstall/disable the Google apps you won’t need then replace them with alternatives from F-droid (add the Izzyondroid repo too) like Cromite (in FFUpdater), Comaps, Thunderbird and QUIK SMS.

You should also follow standard practices like setting a non-easy to guess PIN code and also installing security updates.

Just don’t connect it to the internet. The radio and Bluetooth do not need an internet connection to work and you can use your phone for maps and music streaming.

If you’re using this laptop to do work, then Mint or Zorin can’t be beat. They have user-friendly interfaces, they have stable packages meaning updates are unlikely to break your OS, and you can still install new software through Flatpak and Snap.

Once installed, install Librewolf for web browsing, VLC for video playback, OnlyOffice for MS Office files, and any other software you need from the built-in software store. If you choose Mint then you need to turn on unverified Flatpaks in the software store for everything to appear.

Also, with the original 1 x 4 GB of RAM and mechanical hard drive, this laptop will be slow with a modern OS, so I recommend upgrading it to 8 GB RAM (2 x 4 GB is recommended for dual channel speed) and an SSD beforehand.

Use a VPN with a circumvention protocol like Stunnel. Windscribe has a ‘stealth’ mode using it.