In order to protect your privacy even more efficiently, you need to do something very simple whenever using an online service or a software. Something that most people fail to do is reading the terms of service, also known as a TOS, from companies or developers’ software. This usually will tell you straight up whether they’re spying on you, selling your data, or using it to sell ads. This will solve a lot of problems with people not realizing that some software is actually the opposite of privacy, but they keep using it thinking it enhances their privacy.
For every company where I have felt the need to read their terms of service and privacy policies beforehand, only once have I felt comfortable enough to go ahead and use their service.
The other twenty or so times? I have backed out. Usually I email the company first for clarity, which has always resulted in them dodging and dancing around their terrible terms and privacy practices.
It’s great to be informed, but the real solutions needed are regulations and consumer protections. Being informed just results in me never using 99% of software or services.