I've used DDG a lot in the past but its not now the primary SE for any of the browsers I have installed.
About 8 or 9 years ago I was shown a video that was a part of a SE building course on udacity.com. The founder of DDG, Gabriel Weinberg, appeared in it alongside Sergey Brin. My reaction was to make sure I didn't use DDG much in the future, it was just a hunch but I wasn't comfortable with using DDG after viewing that clip. I try to achieve the impossible and avoid G**gle at all costs. I've read a lot of good things about DDG and its founder but the chuminess that seemed to come across in that clip made me want to avoid using DDG as much as I had done previously. I know that I and many others have probably had some innocent association with 'baddies' somewhere along the line, standing next to them on the tube or bus maybe is as far this has reached. I cut down on using StartPage when it was bought by an advertising agency. I feel more at ease using Qwant, MetaGer, Mojeek, SwissCows and Peekier for now, until someone opens any cans of worms they're concealing!