Can you help me get up to speed on internet privacy these days?

[youchkn]

I realize that everything I see on the internet is probably controlled by a small number of people, but can anyone catch me up to speed on what the kids are doing these days to maintain privacy? What is the best search engine, or what are some techniques I can use to find search results that might not show up (or at least to cut down on SEO/ marketing garbage)?

How do people use facebook without the invasion of privacy? And I assume they dont use gmail?

Thanks in advance for any help on this. Just need a place to start at least.