Privacy

IIRC it was mainly backlash for them integrating Microsoft ads without tracker blocking. They did walk it back after public backlash, though they still use Microsoft ads, just anonymously.

That and their recent generally AI-positive messaging has alienated anti-AI people, but they seem to be walking some of that back too.

To me it feels like they are generally good, but somewhat out of touch with their userbase, which causes a blunder here and there. They're also a US-based organization, so make of that what you will.

Personally I still use the NoAI version of DDG because no EU-based alternatives have feature parity yet.