First, to answer the main question of the post, I’ve been using DuckDuckGo on and off, switching between it and Mojeek ultimately wanting to use Mojeek as my primary search engine once it improves a bit.
Before using any Brave product I highly recommend people read up on the CEO, especially the “Appointment to CEO and resignation” section en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_EichTL;DR:
spoiler> donation of $1,000 to California Proposition 8, which called for the banning of same-sex marriage in California. > donations in the amount of $2,100 to Proposition 8 supporter Tom McClintock between 2008 and 2010. > On March 26, 2014, Eich expressed “sorrow for causing pain” and pledged to “work with LGBT communities and allies” at Mozilla. > After 11 days as CEO, Eich resigned on April 3, 2014, and left Mozilla over his opposition to same-sex marriage.
Aside from that, I don’t trust anything Brave due to their affiliate link controversy they had, I do not trust they won’t “accidentally” do something similar with their search engine. No software or CEO is without their fair share of controversy, but I feel it’s best to at least know what they are.
As for DuckDuckGo, their CEO Gabriel Weinburg’s primary buried controversy is the Names Database