So a friend wants to upgrade his S9 to something newer either a google Pixel or a Motorola phone of some type.
Problem is he also has a gmail account for many things and can’t just drop it. So this question is primarily about using a gmail account on an eOS phone.
Is it safe to us the build in eOS browser (or maybe Firefox) and just log into gmail from the browser? Of should he use the eOS built in mail app? Or should he do neither and just forward the gmail to the e.email (Murena)?
I would say that use of the browser will be likely safer than any app. Maybe TrackerControl (or Advanced Privacy) will give the user clues to extraneous traffic.
Ofc as soon as one does any interaction with Google via a login the user is subject to those T&C so is “doomed”.
I’d use the most convenient option, a mail client, the built-in would do, it can do gmail oauth - but configure it to fetch once per day.
The real value lies in setting up a second mail account at a small corp and transition esp. personal comms over to that gradually, unsubscribing the gmail thing, resub with new mail.
In general I’d weight usage independence over worrying about network signals to google too much.