That is the only privacy they offer.
They do not keep a profile, but offer ads based on your search terms only, and your estimated location.
They send ads and skew "search" results to their estimate of your geolocation
iCloud Private relay gets me DDG "results" (meaning where to buy stuff) for stores in Bakersfield, Sacramento and various far away places.
They push pretty hard on their app you can install. I don't know what it does, free or extra cost.
That said, it's my default. Mostly for the better.
For consistency reasons, I stick with a browser to do web search.
It also lets me choose a search engine as I wish. An app locks you in to their site, which often fails me, and I send in reports to that effect. I sometimes have to qualify search terms massively so that I get real answers instead of pages of sales pitches at the top of results.
Did you know that EBay has Richard Feynman himself for sale? I hate search engine optimization.
A real VPN encrypts all traffic from your computer, so that even your ISP cannot snoop on you.
I cannot recommend one, since I don't use one. It seems that all free ones either are weak or some actually are fake and leak your data.
Simple+? Here is a comparison table. Wow.
https://vpns.gg/
Users here can possibly make recommendations. You might want to make a separate OP for recommencations.
I am going to evaluate the free one at riseup.net
https://help.riseup.net/vpn
Riseup.net is a highly trustworthy operation which has been helping activists for a long time.
I hope that it works for me.
When I want to browse securely, I use tor browser.
https://www.torproject.org/
It is available for windows, mac Linux and android. Apple makes it impossible to use on ios. (Remember, they're protecting us ... )
Tor not only encrypts your data; it routes it through the onion network, erasing your tracks.
Rarely, an exit node may be compromised, but that gets remedied very quickly.
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