Here‘s an in-depth review from 03/2025 where Kagi and Metager are compared by german IT-Sec expert Mike Kuketz and his team.

No privacy-related concerns were raised back then.

It is a german blog (sorry, couldn’t find an EN-version), and a very trustworthy source for me.

https://www.kuketz-blog.de/besser-als-google-bezahlsuchmasch...