None of the popular distros will spy on you the way Windows or MacOS do, so privacy shouldn’t be a concern.
As for security, is it malware you fear? Without more specific context, the only thing that can be said for sure is that you should encrypt your drive (most distros will have the option to set that up during installation), and don’t sudo
random commands you see on the internet without understanding what they do.
The Ubuntu thing was about them making it opt-out rather than opt-in (so turned on by default), but it’s still nothing malicious and diesn’t collect any personal data. At least that’s how I remember it.
Also Linux doesn’t really have anti-viruses like Windows does (there are a few options for edgecases though). That is because Linux isn’t really targeted by malware developers as much and also Linux is actually designed to be secure.
As for general security tips, number 1 is probably using a password manager (I use a KeePassXC compatible client).
Also be careful with
rm -rf
. I almost deleted all the files in my home directory once. I have aliasedrm
togio trash
since.