I use kagi for a search engine. Paying for a search engine means that I am the customer, not the product. While you are correct that my data is an asset for Ka

I use kagi for a search engine. Paying for a search engine means that I am the customer, not the product. While you are correct that my data is an asset for Kagi, it is a one shot asset, vs my subscription, which is recurring revenue. I can look at the privacy policy for Kagi (https://kagi.com/privacy https://kagi.com/privacy), and see that I am not at risk of having my searches logged or data shared. I trust them because violating that privacy policy puts them at risk of being sued by me, and by any investors in the company. As you yourself stated: either company is capable of building a profile. One has promised not to do that contractually, and google, more or less, has promised to do exactly that regardless.