I can’t imagine Google is losing sleep over this being an issue for GOS users. If anything I’d assume anything that could get people to switch back to stock is what they want.

One downside for Mint is RCS doesn’t work properly with T-Mobile carriers as they require more privileged access. GOS has talked about maybe providing a toggle to allow this like they do with Android Auto.

https://soatok.blog/2025/07/07/checklists-are-the-thief-of-joy/

There is a wide variety of quality with these recommendations / suggestions.

For example its still lists calyxos which at the moment is dead and a site like privacytools which is basically an SEO farm.

Generally people should avoid lists that do not provide any sort of criteria / transparency for whats on the list, regardless of the intention.

I have the rare ability to not attach my career to my self worth. This makes it much easier for me to be happy regardless of what I do to get paid.

Honestly it sounds like you might be making things more difficult then they need to be. Does your threat model actually require you to take the actions you are taking?

This is true. Although the curation is minimal and while bing isn’t the only source its the main source.

Feel free to compare the results of a ddg search and bing search.

DDG is more of a privacy frontend for Bing then its own search engine. Typically if its not on Bing its not gonna be on DDG.

Works on both Brave and Google via Mullvad Leta

They lost me at calling ExpressVPN the gold standard. Even their audit is bs. KPMG is the same company that provides the “always-on” audit to PureVPN.

Any article that still uses the “eyes” as a factor in their evaluation is a massive red flag. Very public intelligence alliances are the least of your worries.