DuckDuckGo extensions and apps are now blocking Google Sign-in pop-ups for all of its apps and browser extension, eliminating what it considers an annoyance or a privacy threat for its users.
DuckDuckGo provides privacy-focused search engines, email services, mobile apps, and data-protecting extensions to browsers. A standalone web browser is in development, but it is only currently available in beta for macOS.
Today, the company announced that all its Chrome, Firefox, Brave apps, and browser extensions would actively block Google sign-in prompts on websites.
Google provides this one-click sign-on option for websites. It allows users to sign in quickly to new platforms with their Google account, allowing them to have unified control and convenience.
Rather than creating new accounts or managing multiple passwords across different sites, users can sign in to Google whenever available and avoid the hassle.
Google can track the apps and websites that users sign in to, which is a problem for users. Although Google explicitly states, “Data from Sign In With Google is not used for ads or other non-security purposes.”
DuckDuckGo claims that their tests have shown that Google still collects data. We discovered that this option is embedded into the general protection feature for the browser extension. Any Google prompts will be blocked when the extension is activated. This is also true for the DuckDuckGo macOS browser.
The Google blocking feature is embedded into “Protection.” And you cannot disable it unless all privacy protections are disabled. DuckDuckGo’s latest feature won’t cause any problems for users who use Google to sign in on websites.
This method is still available on the login pages of affiliated platforms. The annoying pop-up window won’t appear.
Related Stories: