I think there are a lot of people out there that are extremely concerned with online security and privacy. I think it might be safe to say that the Steemit community is likely more concerned with that sort of thing than average.
With all the stuff going on in the news about how Google is actually trying to manipulate people's search results and also collecting data on their users it only seems logical to me that we at least have a look at alternatives.
To be honest with ya, aside from my financial data, It really doesn't matter to me if Google wants to track what I am doing online. If the FBI is collecting information on me they are going to be wasting a lot of time learning that I spend an inordinate amount of time looking for cheese-based foods and researching my next video game purchase. There isn't a whole lot of funny business going on over here.
I don't pretend to understand how Google (or anyone else) uses this data but I suppose I am just a normal amount of paranoid when the targeted advertising actually is correct about me. Duck Duck Go is a different type of search engine in that while it does collect overall data statistics (they need to be capable of making money after all) they do not collect individual data.
They "Do not store IP addresses, do not log user information, and uses cookies only when required." It also produces pretty much the same results at Google or whoever else you might be using for that sort of thing.
I'm just happy to use them because I have always been a fan of the "underdogs" and Google controls entirely too much of the digital world.
So seeing as how it (to me) appears to function just as well as the other guys, I can't see any particular reason why you shouldn't at least give this a try if you aren't already using it.