On this note, I've been having a decent run with Qwant. No AI chatbot, seems to be referencing some of the big indexes but also recently partnered with Eccosia to start working on building an independent index.
Mojeek was underwhelming but I'll try it again
The PurchaseWithPurpose community here on Lemmy and other platforms does a great job of pointing at achievable change by dissecting nine differences between available alternatives.
Privacy is a spectrum; I agree with comments here saying to look at these much more hardened principles still even if you won't ultimately be taking them up on all their suggestions