So, the big kicker on that front is that most distributions ( there is a whole family tree of different versions built with different goals) are open source, meaning that people can look at the code and see what is running on their machine. Most people aren’t inspecting every part of their system, but every part has been inspected by many people. When something sketchy goes on, it will be called out. Because the code is open for anyone to see, and most versions are distributed under certain licenses, people can take it and branch off their own version if they don’t like what’s being done.

There are some versions maintained by companies (Android for example) and some by volunteers, but they all run on the same open source Linux kernel, or some modified version of it, which is maintained by volunteers. Most Linux distributions are built by people who care about it and want it to work well.

So at the end of the day, it’s all super transparent and there is a lot of accountability through that. No one will be sneaking spy wear in or logging what you do unless you let them, and because there is so many versions, it’s easy to migrate to a different version if the people making one do something stupid.

A lot of power users love Linux for how much you can do with it, but there are lots of versions that are built to be easy to use and as low maintenance as possible. There is a huge variety of versions, even a bunch of gimmick or joke version.