It was possible to be somewhat off the grid several decades ago. Now trying to be off the grid is the easiest way to be sure someone(s) will be watching you. One of the funniest things that were being advertised [about 40 years ago] were ball caps with LED lights on the visor. The ad showed how cameras would see everyone's face, but with this off-the-grid ball cap all that would show was a blob of light! As is that wouldn't attract any attention.
So basically, your ideas of keeping a low profile are fine. Don't get involved. Don't attract any attention to yourself. Don't play the game. That's all fine. But please don't deceive yourself into thinking that 'living off the grid' is in any way possible.

Eyes and ears open. Mouth shut. Great advice for these times if you don’t want to play the game.

look into Kagi as a search engine, they seem committed to that. Instead of generating revenue from selling your information, you have to pay a monthly fee, 5 or 10 dollars. Here's the search engine. You can try it free for a while before having to pay: https://kagi.com/

Here's more information: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/

They also have a browser. Don't know much about it but it also seems geared towards privacy. Might be worth checking out: https://kagi.com/orion/

Hello all. So I have been thinking about this. I realized this is kind of an opportunity for me.
What I could do is change my entertainment and how I get information. Being in the boomer generation I remember a time when you read everything especially if you didn't have access to TV. So what I think I am going to do is make a list of things I want to learn, items I am interested in then get books on them and just leave the electronics at home. I may record some music so I can play it while I am driving. Other than that a stand alone GPS, a dumb flip phone and books.( Sorry I posted on a computer forum that I am essentially giving up the computer ! but the info that you cant go dark with a computer kind of left no choice ) just for the record I have been married 20 years and have had plans for doing traveling especially when I retired. one day I was talking to my wife and she said she doesn't want to do any traveling at least not like that, she is a hotel kind of person. I think she said something like she would rather shoot herself in the leg! Ha ha. Anyways later I asked her if she would mind if I went by myself. she said she was fine with that. So my plan is to do 2 months a year and divide the US into thirds and a fourth year from Canada east to west. I may do Canada in three months. If I time it right I could be in DC during the next election !

Also, you'll never really know what information is being being exposed or gathered no matter how much research you do or assurances you get. Plus, if you're on the internet at all, at least true for me, is that you'll eventually get sucked into something, maybe just out of boredom, an get into some old habits of wasting time.

The stand alone gps and flip phone are great ideas for your purposes. One final suggestion, this is something I would definitely do, is load up on audiobooks and get a stand alone little mp3 player. I think you could get lots of free audiobooks from the library on whatever subjects you're interested in and listen while you drive, hike around, whatever.

I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to take a year away from TV and internet and listen to a few hundred audiobooks filled with knowledge instead of meaningless cultural junk.

Let me offer, my advice

What ever device you buy now, will be, advertiser loaded.
The cheaper the phone, the
More ads embedded,
Do you have a cloud? Know thePw?

But that device and immediately, hit factory reset,
And build what you want from there