I've posted a similar question to asklemmy but more over the focus on preference than privacy. In short the search engine Kagi is really good, Brave search was what I had used for a while. I think search engine choice is a case by case kinda thing, each person uses what they like. There are some other engines I forgot from my post which are more privacy centered.

Yes it is 10 dollars a month, but you can create an account and try it for free to see if it is for you. It also does not use your data nor push advertisements which explains the cost.

as in something similar to YouTube revanced? Do you know if there a community or discord? That would be neat

could you invite me to the telegram? trying to wrap my head around compiling code from github scares me lol

I use Passy because I like the purple UI lmao

Louis Rossman has pushed a media player called Grayjay, open source and has subscription implementation across youtube, twitch, and more