Some great newer tech distros would be Fedora Silverblue, or if you like Debian, there is VanillaOS. They are immutable distros, and they introduce a new way of using Linux. I like to pair it with distrobox, which lets you use regular Linux applications in a container.
I’m not sure about how private it is, but I use Ecosia for my search engine. It works great for me, and the images are alright. They are pretty transparent with their privacy, and you help plant trees too!