Search and browse the internet without being tracked or targeted. Startpage is the world's most private search engine. Use Startpage to protect your personal data.
Heard some sketchy stuff about duckduckgo recently, found out about start page.many users?
I take the opposite view - you definitely should host it yourself. Any public instance you don't directly control can insert any sort of code they want to.
A cheap VPS, rented using Monero, with SearXNG on it ensures privacy.
If you're not using a vpn on your vps, it's the same as using google directly. And if you're only using the vpn on your desktop it's even worse, since google will just tie you to your VPS ip.
That is the point, If you want to go really private, there is no other to self host on a own server. If not, it's better to use any of the other "normal" search engine with a good reputation. the privacy it has you can check with the services above mencioned., and to repeat until boredom: important to read TOS and PP to avoid surprises.
These are legally binding documents, that is, if they do strange things with your data, without specifying it in this texts, a ton of bricks can fall on them with million-dollar complaints.