For hardware, I'd only trust a company if they didn't also have an interest in data. In fact, I'd trust a hardware company more if they didn't also have a big software division.

A company like AMD I would trust more than a company like Apple.

Decent management. A lack of change of business model, no rug pulls and such. Fair value for money. Consistency over the longer term. No lock in or other forced relationships. Large enough to be useful and to have decent team size, small enough to not have the illusion they'll conquer the world. Healthy competition.

the way they respond to security and privacy incidents + publishing technical security + privacy papers / docs

No past history of shady planned-obsolescence sprinkled in a bunch of their products, for one.

So that rules out Apple.

A leadership team that is very open and involved with the community, and one that takes extra steps, compared to competitors, to show they take privacy seriously.

I'd go for a co-operative ownership model rather than capitalist?

and make sure the member/owners are all of like mind, and willing to pay more to ensure security and privacy