Still grudgingly use google for images, as most convenient, and I don't give much of a toss if the intellectually-cretinous peeping toms in the alphabet agencies see me searching on global distribution of geological strata or quasar distribution anisotropies, even if it is none of their biz!
And was going to comment on the possibility duckduckgo is compromised, but I see that a longer comment has already been made by @ballinconscious (thanks!)
Startpage.com is good, as it can be incorporated into browser search windows.
I've set searX as a homepage on several browsers for convenience:
https://searx.laquadrature.net/

About searx
Searx is a metasearch engine, aggregating the results of other search engines while not storing information about its users.

Why use searx?
searx may not offer you as personalised results as Google, but it doesn't generate a profile about you
searx doesn't care about what you search for, never shares anything with a third party, and it can't be used to compromise you
searx is free software, the code is 100% open and you can help to make it better. See more on github
If you do care about privacy, want to be a conscious user, or otherwise believe in digital freedom, make searx your default search engine or run it on your own server

Technical details - How does it work?
Searx is a metasearch engine, inspired by the seeks project.
It provides basic privacy by mixing your queries with searches on other platforms without storing search data. Queries are made using a POST request on every browser (except chrome). Therefore they show up in neither our logs, nor your url history. In case of Chrome users there is an exception, searx uses the search bar to perform GET requests.
Searx can be added to your browser's search bar; moreover, it can be set as the default search engine.

How can I make it my own?
Searx appreciates your concern regarding logs, so take the code and run it yourself!
Add your Searx to this list to help other people reclaim their privacy and make the Internet freer!
The more decentralized the Internet is, the more freedom we have!