Google One is the marketing people are probably referring to for privacy.
The pixel has the default function for DNS over HTTPS and their Google One offering has a VPN to “protect” your data. Both of those are sold as privacy measures.
I see a lot of responses here seem kinda out of touch with the actual functionality of the phone and what marketing pushes Google does.
I was hoping more people would use RCS but I guess SMS will probably be the old fax machine in the future.