Some Software I use

Almost everything here is open-source. I tried to put them in top:bottom as easy:hard

Signal, https://www.signal.org - a messenger app, secure, quite feature rich

Bitwarden - a password manager, well-respected in terms of security

uBlock Origin - an adblocker, very powerful (any visual element blocker, block connections to certain sites, many filters)

CleanURLs - an extension to remove parts of urls that connect you to the normal website but with trackers

SimpleLogin - a service to manage email aliases, i.e. create custom anonymous email addresses for each service and disable/enable addresses to manage spam

DuckDuckGo - green viable Google competitor that is private, warning: NOT open-source

NextDNS - a customizable, privacy respecting DNS provider (DNS providers are needed in order for your computer to know where a website's url goes to)

cryptpad - a google alternative that respects privacy

inkscape/gimp - graphic maker/editor respectively

thunderbird - email + calendar/tasks management

fruux - calendar syncing, questionable privacy

Browser:
ungoogled-chromium - google chrome without google trackers, warning: no update system
firefox - more customizable, viable-in-the-market alternative to google chrome, helps reduce Google's browser monopoly
An interesting read: https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/choose-your-browser-carefully.html

LocalCDN - an extension to help reduce tracking (warning: can break some websites)

Linux

vim - text editor, very customizable, local

probably more, I'll add as I think of them