A proper VPN should mitigate that paranoia, if you choose. Yes, you have to trust the VPN provider. But it goes from "anyone could be monitoring my metadata" t

A proper VPN should mitigate that paranoia, if you choose. Yes, you have to trust the VPN provider. But it goes from "anyone could be monitoring my metadata" to "Protonmail or Mozilla could be monitoring my metadata" and, at least for Protonmail, one credible leak of that would completely end the company. And this is the relationship you have with your phone provider already... although if you're paranoid, let's skip talking about what can be sniffed between your cell and the tower! No idea if that's worth it to you, I never, ever use public WiFi without a VPN. Just tossing that out there. As an aside to the aside, I just read your story of how you went from programming to trucking, and I can relate to a lot of it. It sounds like undiagnosed ADHD, but lifestyle changes are a valid way to accommodate that, and come with fewer side effects than medication. I'm lucky to have the job that I have; I expect I'm more temperamentally suited to driving a truck than to the median software engineering position.