I never heard anything before this, so I looked around, and there's definitely some posts about it.

https://www.osnews.com/story/139270/do-not-use-kagi/

https://d-shoot.net/kagi.html

I'll have to give them a read.

For now, ignore my recommendation, as I don't yet fully know my stance on this, with the information provided.

However, I can say that I've been super happy with the search results. I don't use their email service. Just the search and the access to all of the LLMs that are out there.

I don't know what shady shit you're referring to. They do AI, but I don't use any of that. IMO their core strength is the search engine and how it works for you rather than against.