Ask HN: Is digital privacy still achievable without sacrificing the convenience?

Using cash for in-person purchases isn't really an inconvenience for myself (living in the U.S.). I think that is a decent first step.

Also using an email provider that only does email and not advertising isn't too hard (I use Fastmail). If you're looking for potentially more privacy, maybe something like ProtonMail.

Not giving out your email address or phone number or any other info that you don't have to will help a lot. When I do buy stuff online and the form requires a phone number, I put in the business's own phone number or some unusable number. At stores or doctors' offices I leave forms blank.

Using a VPN (Calyx) and ad/tracking blockers is very easy to do. Using Linux isn't too hard.

So, yes, decent privacy is achievable. Perfect privacy is not.