None of this is new news but it might have slipped under the radar.
System1 is an ad-tech company that has moved into the privacy market.
They bought Startpage search engine and have been aggressively promoting it on social media.
https://hackernoon.com/startpage-is-still-a-privacy-first-browser-says-system1-ceo-9dax33q0
But in that interview this:
QuoteWe are spending a lot of time thinking about where privacy is headed and how we can provide a compelling suite of products for people. Last year we acquired the Waterfox browser, which is known for, among other things, being privacy friendly. We are also working on a private mapping solution in our MapQuest business. We believe a combined offering, which could include VPN and other privacy-related services, would be a very interesting privacy bundle for our users. Stay tuned!
The quote above is where it gets interesting: they also bought Waterfox browser AND Mapquest off of Verizon. That's news to me. And interesting.
https://www.ghacks.net/2020/02/14/waterfox-web-browser-sold-to-system1/
https://www.joshloe.com/2019/10/01/verizon-sells-mapping-service-mapquest-to-ad-tech-firm-system1/
So you have a popular privacy meta-search engine, a small but established privacy browser and now a mapping service. Somebody is moving faster than I thought.