"It’s actually a big myth that search engines need to track your personal search history to make money or deliver quality search results" - DuckDuckGo's CEO explains how it’s become profitable without gathering user data
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-revenue-generation-model-for-DuckDuckGo/answer/Gabriel-Weinberg
I love this project: a riverbed in Amsterdam was drained and the ~700,000 found objects dating from the 1300s to present were photographed and presented online: