[RedMonqey]

"Google still knows what you do online even if you don’t use it for search.”

Not being a tech nerd, I'm have to take you word for that. All I know is ever since I been using "DuckDuckGo" the ads I using to see on the side bars(?) no longer pop up showing the previous articles or products I looked at in the past. Still use Amazon and occasionally FB but my usage has declined tremendously

Any recommendations on search engines that respect my privacy?

[PittsburghAfterDark]

Search engines aren’t the issue believe it or not.

The fact that every commercial website has 25+ web/ad functions and 99+ tracking functions (I know this due to my ad blocking software.) just browsing the web provides more data to Google, Amazon etc than you searching for say, “Camping equipment”.

Every publisher is guilty of this, some far more than others obviously.

They sell search, they track activity just from you being on a Google ad served site. Short of connecting to a VPN every time you go online nothing really stops their vacuuming up of tracking data.