I’m most used to LineageOS but I keep hearing people on Reddit /r/privacy say it has privacy problems, while other people here recommend /e/OS as a good alternative. Assuming I don’t install gapps (Google apps) on either or I use MicroG, how do they compare in terms of privacy? Which one is more privacy friendly?

Last I heard, Lineage uses a lot of source code directly from the AOSP, which still uses Google’s online services and telemetry despite being open source, but someone else said something about /e/ also pinging back to Google at some point, despite it advertising as being de-googled. If anyone can give me links to research further on either of these topics, I’d appreciate that too.