Same, I was a DDG user for years and switched to Qwant a month ago. Qwant results are a step up from DDG, and Qwant takes the same approach to privacy as DDG but it’s based in France so it wins in that regard as well. I’m in the US and Qwant still does a great job of providing localized results.
So this isn’t a VPN service, but having read your comments it might work…
When I was in Sweden recently I needed to do something online with the appearance that I was in the US. First I tried using a couple of VPN services but they were detected by the website I was trying to use and I got an “access denied” message. So my travel partner activated their Verizon TravelPass and let me hotspot off it. TravelPass gave us a regular Verizon wireless address out of California and I was able to complete my task. Unfortunately though it’s $12/day.
Privacy while shopping in person is literally impossible these days, so I don’t even try there.
I know I’m recorded dozens if not hundreds of times by cameras and other devices every time I leave home. Apartment building security cams, neighbors’ doorbell cams, public transit cams, police surveillance cams, dashcams, retail cams. There are thousands of automated license plate readers in my state. My car has four cams and sends all sorts of data back to the manufacturer. My apartment front door is electronic and it logs all locks & unlocks. My building’s parking garage logs every time I enter and exit. Virtually every intersection has surveillance cams (not just red light cams). Hell even when hiking you’ll end up on trail cams.
Last month police in my metro used outdoor surveillance cams to falsely accuse a woman of package theft and the cop that visited her home told her, “You know we have cameras in that town. You can’t get a breath of fresh air in or out of that place without us knowing."
Your best bet for privacy while shopping is if you walk everywhere, pay with cash and wear a mask. And even if you do all that, gait-recognition technology will be widespread in the very near future and you’ll be identifiable in public even while wearing a mask.