Likewise, I moved away from Chrome (largely since our exit from the EU has meant that our data has been moved to the US ... to be sliced, diced, sold and profitted upon) to Firefox. Chromium (the open source de-googled Chrome) would be a viable alternative but as soon as you sign into google, it's as good as "googled" again. I reserve Chromium as a lesser of two evils when using google services - I quite agree, Maps is excellent, Photos is really good and I do really enjoy a good number of things on YouTube now.
It's not paranoid. It's a matter of ownership. Our data is our data. Big data is collecting absolutely everything that we do whether they can use it or not. At some point they will be able to ... and the metadata connections will tell them more about you than you know. As with other areas of your life, use precautions!
Browsers are not the only thing spying on us ...
Once away from google, indeed, at the moment DuckDuckGo seems like a good search engine.
I use 1.1.1.1 as my DNS provider and have applied DNS over HTTPs on Firefox. I think I can do this on Chromium, too, but I've not looked. There are apps for iOS and Android, both of which I use - they are more like a VPN on those devices.
For mail, go into your settings and check IMAP is over SSL/TLS (port 993) and SMTP over SSL/TLS (port 465) rather than STARTTLS, although you've no choice if you use a Microsoft address for email (like Outlook, Hotmail, Live, etc) which uses STARTTLS.
My domain/hosting provider is based in Germany and that is where data is at rest. On my hosting, I've installed NextCloud and configured the at rest encryption. Basically, iCloud, but mine. If that's beyond you, look to something like disroot.org (based in the Netherlands) who have a NextCloud provision at cloud.disroot.org. NextCloud integrates well with macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, iOS and Android. I don't use Windows, so can't comment there.
If I feel especially paranoid, I have tor to fall back on. It's a dead easy install for Linux and macOS (via brew), and just sits there as a proxy service on port 9050. So, you can either set a "location" on macOS to use that proxy or install a proxy extension on Firefox or Chrom/ium and switch to it when you feel the need. Some folks say tor is compromised. If you're using it for privacy (against ISPs, trackers and big data) it'll do a sound job. If you want total anonymity to engage in criminal activity without consequence, I gather it's not all it's cracked up to be.
gpg is dead in the water, I think. Firefox Send is good to send encryted files to other folks without the need for a degree in Computer Science. If you just want to sign your emails then an S/MIME certificate can be had for free from Actalis. While on Firefox services, their Monitor service is useful for notifying you of any of your details found in big data leaks.
Finally, passwords. Don't save them in Chrome. Firefox can save your passwords and you can use Lockwise to integrate that functionality into your mobile phone. That, or use your own password manager. I use a self-hosted BitWarden. BitWarden online is probably okay. It's a LastPass clone. LastPass (parent company) was sold to a private equity company recently, so consider all your passwords as private property now. Get off LastPass, fast! If you do leave, once you've deleted all your passwords and requested your account be closed ... answer that you've forgotton your password. If you give them your password at this stage, they can decrypt your passwords at will later.
For me, I think that's a reasonable set of mitifations without going full Snowden and running TAILS off a microSD card, although I do have an installation of TAILS on a microSD card!
Now I've raised you one Snowden we should talk about how we invited the NSA into our daily lives to listen to everything that we say and do ... Alexa, Siri, Cortana (ha!) and Google Assistant. Get shot of them! They're a gimmick at best and of no actual or real value. If you have such a device in your home, you're handing your life over to big data at best, the NSA/GCHQ at worst. You can get webcam covers for laptops and so on. On my iMac, I've physically unplugged the camera and microphone when I last had it open. I use an external DAC which can input if I want to, or use a headset when I do need to talk through my computer. Of course, your phone is always listening ...
Sooner or later, I'll have to buy a modern TV which no doubt has all manner of spying facilities. Just search for Samsung and what it rats out on you. You can install your own home router and something like piHole, but you're at the mercy of everyone else's mitigations when you leave your home, so best secure your actual devices - your laptops, phones and so on.
The main advice is to not trust. Even if you can turn off the tracking and advertising IDs in, say, a FireStick ... I bet it's still tracking and tracing. Back to my first point about data moving out of the EU and so big data physically moving it to the US. It's all about whether they can (legally) use it. They're all illegally using it, of course, and when caught out they're fined less than they made on it. Win, win! For them ...
Take precautions!
Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Bitwarden, 1.1.1.1 and Nextcloud as a starter for 10 ...