How can someone stay relatively private while having a gmail or other internet accounts?

I have a Gmail/google account and am interested in being more private/anonymous on the internet. Nothing crazy but just like protecting my privacy more given the increasing carelessness for privacy at the tech companies that have all of our data.

Is there a way that I can (moving forward) become more private while keeping the accounts I use. I understand using VPNs and such, but don't companies like google already have my location, name. etc., so what's the point. Is …

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