True about not knowing 100% what their backend is doing, but how is that any different than trusting DDG or Google, or anyone for that matter?
https://searx.space/ reports on whether the client visible pieces match the expected code from source, and you should be using a VPN to search anyway if you care about masking your IP - or go through TOR to do so, or both.
The SearX provider I'm using said Google blocked them so I don't have to worry about it :)
you can set your preferences to whatever engines you want to use.
Include Google, or not. It's up to you.
The preferences are saved in a cookie which is not stored by the SearX application (can be verified by the source code on github).
Well at the end of the day I have no idea what source code they are actually running since I don't have access to the server.
But good to know you can exclude Google on demand.
True about not knowing 100% what their backend is doing, but how is that any different than trusting DDG or Google, or anyone for that matter?
https://searx.space/ reports on whether the client visible pieces match the expected code from source, and you should be using a VPN to search anyway if you care about masking your IP - or go through TOR to do so, or both.