If you have the Brave Browser installed on your Windows devices, then you may also have Brave VPN services installed on the machine. Brave installs these services without user consent on Windows devices.
Brave Firewall + VPN is an extra service that Brave users may subscribe to for a monthly fee. Launched in mid-2022, it is a cooperation between Brave Software, maker of Brave Browser, and Guardian, the company that operates the VPN and the firewall solution. The firewall and VPN solution is available for $9.99 per month.
I've posted a similar question to asklemmy but more over the focus on preference than privacy. In short the search engine Kagi is really good, Brave search was what I had used for a while. I think search engine choice is a case by case kinda thing, each person uses what they like. There are some other engines I forgot from my post which are more privacy centered.
I use Brave Search on Firefox, but I mostly use the shortcuts it provides like !yt and !g. A few months back I mostly used it over google, but the search results more times than not have been worse in comparison for me.
A VPN provider has the same level of insight into your traffic as an ISP does when not using a VPN. If having one installed without your consent isn't a privacy issue I don't know what is...
Thorium isn't good at all imo. They don't really do much to enhance privacy/security, and have constantly delayed updates. It seems to be ran entirely by 1 college kid in his free time.
I like Chris Titus, but I wouldn't really use him as a source for privacy/security advice.
Stop using his baby boomer ramblings as a source of authentic information. He is just being a redditor on his Titus Tech Talk channel, giving advice on every topic regardless of his expertise on the subject. He is doing good work with debloat script and general Linux peptalk, but put a full stop there. The stuff about web browsers, antiviruses and a bunch of other stuff is complete drivel.
I don't use Windows but if you install a program that requires a service on Linux, the service will be written to your system's services daemon awaiting your activation. I don't see what the issue with that is.