Honestly, you're not gonna get away from the NSA dragnet, no matter which vpn you use. However, I recommend using vpn to keep comcrap or google's nose out of your data (depending on your service provider).
Make sure your DNS servers are not set to google (1.1.1.1).
Don't use google chrome.
Duckduckgo is good, but not fool proof. I'm sure there are issues with them.
We use gmail for RME's email (external, nothing to do with the forum), but that will change very soon.
Sadly, they will still get some of your data. Their net is wide. There's an entry on Stack Overflow (developer board) about catching google trying to activate audio on a device from an advertisement. They are doing this to try to fingerprint devices because I guess the tracking and ad blocking is putting a dent in it.
I often have my browser's devtools open since I'm often debugging a snippet. I noticed this message often recently: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio? Update. I see it's from an ad(?).
meta.stackoverflow.com
The carpet baggers have full on infiltrated the wild west of the internet and it's getting ugly.
Some of you might think this is silly, but China already has a profile with a "social credit score" for you. Yes you, an American. They just migrated a copy of this system into Australia.