All your favorite games are there but now require a Microsoft account, and will ask you if you want to log in automatically everytime despite you checking the "don't ask me again" box. They'll also gradually keep asking for more personal information (phone number, second email address, age, address, fingerprint, face) and lock you out of your account everytime you refuse "to protect you".
To people having panic attacks, it is not large enough to destroy the earth, and we would have plenty of time to evacuate the impact location. Though let's hope it isn't anywhere with permafrost.
If the Pihole is catching and blocking it, it is possible to have it trigger a script that for example registers a push notification. Since they have a Pihole, they could also run a self-hosted push notification service on the same device if they don't want to use the Google or Apple Push notification systems.
The only way out is specifically buying only products that don't do this shit, or ones that have been jailbroken and run open source software.
But the very best way to stop it all for good is to kill online advertisement. Online advertisement is the number one reason companies want your data to begin with. Go to your grandma's house, install adblock origin and sponsorblock.
When you have kids. Disable the google play store and install fdroid, and install an adblocker on their chromium of gecko browser. Replace all default apps with the fdroid alternatives.
Get the oldest raspberry pi device and install Pihole, then make it your DNS service so all lan and WiFi data runs through your adblocker.
Donate to open source projects, brag to your friends how your apps have no ads and no tracking.
Fight for right to privacy and right to repair. Stop using google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta.
Use Linux instead of Windows. If you need windows, run it in a virtual machine without internet access.
Use grapheneOS, LineageOS, CalyxOS instead of basic Android.
As for home systems like security cameras, I suggest following the ultimate open source guide by Louis Rossmann.
FUTO is source available, so in terms of safety it is just as good as FOSS. All the voice to text is done locally. I use the FUTO keyboard and Grayjay and they're both amazing. Don't get too hung up on their license. It prevents other businesses from taking their source code and taking over the space with a for profit application. It is 99% as good as FOSS.
That and people found out the data was being used to identify people who hadn't even taken the tests, but their family members had, and the data was being shared with third parties.
Freetube and Grayjay on desktop both had this same issue but they resolved it in a few days. Both work on Linux and also let you download videos. Grayjay also lets you sync with Grayjay on mobile to get your subscribed channels, playlists, etc. Neither require google accounts and are full privacy frontends that don't use the youtube API.
I use them not that often, but more often than convenience stores.
Usually I the one closest to my house that has the drink I want.
Coke, coffee or icecream.
Supermarket. They're way cheaper there and the supermarket is a 5 minute walk away.
They're the most convenient out of all options. No human interactions, and there is usually one on the way where you're going. If you're at work, they usually have vending machines inside the building so you don't even need to put on your jacket.
Vending machines sell drinks at almost double the price of the ones at super markets and around 150% of the ones at convenience stores, so it all comes down to how quicker it is to buy one from the vending machines vs stores. But when it comes to canned drinks, convenience stores tend not to have the canned ones and only sell PET bottles, and as everyone knows, PET bottles are bad for the environment, and the drinks don't taste as good as the canned versions.
Currently at bronze which means it at least starts up, but that's about it.
I still recommend GIMP 3.0 as it has made huge changes that vastly improved user workflow, such as non-destructive editing, multi-layer selection, lower clicks required for each action, etc. It feels much more modern now and non-developer user friendly.
Or you get a windows VM and run your favorite program in that. It works but has a slight performance decrease. You can disable internet access on the VM to prevent telemetry and spyware.
That sounds like a cool concept. I'll have to look into this "Lemmy" thing.