To communicate with email services outside of Apple’s ecosystem, iCloud Mail needs to be compatible with the global email system, which doesn’t support end-to-end encryption.
There is however E-to_E encyrption in FaceTime and iMessage.
Several VPN providers promise “no logs”, some might even stick to that - Proton merely have either kept their promise so far or haven’t been caught yet.
Every internet service provider you use multiplies your security and privacy concerns, almost without exception.
Surfshark came as a bundled app on my Philips TV. It works fine for iPlayer but not ITV-X, tho’ I can live without that. I very rarely watch C4, just F1 highlights. I seem to recall that works OK.
I’d give other VPNs a go but I don’t know how to do that whilst maintaining S/shark, which works fine with what I’ve got a.t.mo.
Is it recommended to come out of a VPN from t. to t ? S/shark is permanently ‘on’, on my TV. I connect to it on my laptop only when I want to watch iPlayer.