As others have mentioned, and you’ve no doubt discovered, this is a fairly complex issue that varies from app to app and service to service.

So let’s take this piece by piece:

1. Is there an app that can automatically choose options within my other apps to deny tracking/disable telemetry collection? - No, and even if there was, I wouldn’t use it. Unlike websites where they are relying heavily on a well-known standard - browser cookies - to store and retrieve statistics about your behaviors, apps are running code locally on your device that can do much, much more than your browser can. They have their own configuration formats, varying UI designs, etc, that make a “one-size-fits-all” solution difficult, if not impossible. Further, any app that tried to do this would likely need capabilities that are risky, like full screen-reading and arbitrary app interaction, access to all other apps’ storage space, etc. There’s just too much danger there for my comfort.

2. Will DNS blocking help? - Big ol’ “it depends.” If telemetry collection is happening through separate internet traffic to known telemetry/advertising endpoints, yes. These are common for smaller apps, where they need to use third party services instead of rolling their own solutions, but bigger companies like Facebook or Twitter¹ will often bundle their telemetry with other service-critical traffic so you can’t block it without crippling the app.

3. So what now? - I recommend LAN-wide DNS blocking via something like Pihole over the VPN providers (if you’re only looking for DNS blocking, and not request origination obfuscation) because it gives you much tighter control over what is and isn’t blocked, what block lists are used, etc. Of course that requires some tech skills to get set up and maintain it. Then default to using browser-based websites over apps.

¹ I’ll stop dead-naming Twitter when Elon stops dead-naming his kid

A discord community I’m in has been sharing 3x3 cover image grids of the games that “define you”. I’ll just paste my response from there:

I’m not bothering to share an image because it would just be 7 Kingdom Hearts titles, Tribes 2, and Oregon Trail

haha wow this comment is amazing satire! you really nailed the elitist, dismissive, generally toxic attitude of the people described in the OP!

Your devotion to playing the part is brilliant. you didn’t even put a /s at the end or anything!

bravo on your satirical masterpiece!

EDIT: Comment deleted? my work here is complete

Yup. Small claims is great if you just want compensation for yourself. But it is not an effective means of influencing these companies. If you have enough people filing small claims for them to care then you have a class action which is not small claims.

And small claims won’t accomplish what you want it to. They will settle or, again, drag it out, and chalk it up as a cost of doing business since the cost will be less than the profit they earn from this shady shit

I say this from a position of experience. The courts rarely if ever are an effective way to produce systemic change in matters between corporations and consumers. They just aren’t designed to work that way

The unfortunate reality is that court costs are awarded after the fact and that means you have to be able to put up the money first. A company as large as Corsair will drag it out until any non-wealthy individual can’t afford to pay their lawyers anymore and win by default. This is why hitting their bottom line is the only viable strategy these days