openssl

Run everything inside a VM. Next level would be develop in live USB, qubes OS or bare metal for every project (screw general purpose computer)

At the router level you can block Tor, block VPS IP ranges etc. You can also block the entire internet and only allow ips from your browser history

Besides sandboxing you can run a firewall, I tested with some reverse shells and it does stop them. Of course a red team can do more bad stuff

21 years ago when I used Windows 2000 I faced such problems. One would think those kind of issues would be resolved by now. Anyway

I’m a developer so this may not be for everyone.

I use markdown+git for documents.

If I must use office, I write in gitlab markdown first (auto backups) and then copy into office

USA has your data already (internet cables), why send it to China?

Not going to answer the 2nd question for personal reasons.

Data collection and political system are VERY different. All governments collect data on their private citizens, but not all sell their organs for profit or do forced sterilization