DuckDuckGo Extension
I just wonder if you guys recommend / use the DuckDuckGo extension yourselves, as I know a lot of permissions are granted on chrome and you have to be very very careful what you use.
Seeing as you guys talked about it and recommended it on your blog and podcast, I assume it is a safe extension to use and grant access too? Just after the thoughts of the community and 1PW staff themselves?
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided
Comments
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@Zaka_7: Avoiding assumptions, we don't make these sorts of recommendations "officially" as a company, and who you trust is a very personal decision. But we are fans of DuckDuckGo in general, and extensions that help to avoid tracking, ads, etc. can be really useful. But again, it's up to you to decide if it's a good fit for you. :)
Personally, I avoid installing extensions along with 1Password that request broad permissions to read/change webpages because although they can often do helpful things there is an inherent risk with allowing other extensions to see what you save/fill with 1Password, and they can also break things on websites. That's sort of the point with tracking/ad prevention, etc., but it can result in other things not working the way we expect. The web has, unfortunately, evolved to be somewhat dependent on these things, both for functionality and also for businesses to make money to be able to provide some of the services we take for granted in 2019. I'm glad that 1Password's business doesn't depend on collecting/selling user data, and also hopeful that things will continue to improve for all of us as browsers build in more privacy features by default and other industry initiatives, which forces companies to seek alternatives to the current status quo to attract and keep users, as more people become privacy/security conscious. :sunglasses:
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@brenty Thanks for that. So ‘unofficially’ would you recommend I use the duck duck go search, but uninstall the iPhone app and Chrome extension given the 1password apps?
I was under the impression from the podcast that whilst it’s not an official recommendation. Staff at 1password do have both installed?
Thanks
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@Zaka_7: I'm really going to have to leave that to you. Some folks here definitely use DuckDuckGo's products. But by the same token it's not up to them to tell me what's right for me, and vice versa. However, company policy is that we do not use extensions other than 1Password in a browser/profile where we access the company account/data*, as that's where we have our credentials for systems that we can use to, for example, look up customer account details. We go out of our way to know as little as possible about our customers, but there is information we need to have to provide service, and we take safeguarding that very seriously.
*An exception to this is extensions which have no access to webpages we interact with. For example, I use "Better Blocker" (again, not an official endorsement) in Safari, which filters tracking, ads, etc. _before_ they reach the browser. Safari App Extensions are really just apps that integrate with Safari, so I don't believe there is a way to do something similar in other browsers without granting them access to webpages. There are strengths and weaknesses to both approaches, as far as how extensions work in different browsers.
Anyway, I just use the DuckDuckGo search because I am careful about what I do on the web, aware of the risks, and also know my threshold for ads/tracking. For me, ads and tracking are more of an annoyance than anything else. But I know others feel differently and therefore have their own thresholds, so I don't want to tell you or anyone else you should choose. Being aware and informed is the best thing for everyone, so even though I don't personally use the DuckDuckGo extension, I really like that they're making it, as it's useful to many people, and also the larger effort they're making to educate and spread awareness not only about how all of this works but what our options are as users -- and providing some themselves. :)
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Thanks @brenty I appreciate your stance on this.
I think I am going to stick with it, after all, DuckDuckGo prides itself on privacy, if they are found to be doing something untoward they are done as a business.
I may remove the extension from my Mac until they do a Mac app or similar rather than an extension, But I think that the IOS app should be safe enough, Apple are pretty good at policing things. I trust them almost as much as I trust 1PW.
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Thanks @brenty I appreciate your stance on this.
@Zaka_7: :) :+1: And I agree with this completely:
I think I am going to stick with it, after all, DuckDuckGo prides itself on privacy, if they are found to be doing something untoward they are done as a business.
Honestly, that applies to us as well!
I may remove the extension from my Mac until they do a Mac app or similar rather than an extension, But I think that the IOS app should be safe enough, Apple are pretty good at policing things. I trust them almost as much as I trust 1PW.
iOS app makes sense to me, because those are all sandboxed, and that protects against other apps messing with DuckDuckGo there as well! In a desktop web browser, even when all the installed extensions are benign, they can have weird interactions and conflicts with each other. So I suspect that Chrome and others may move more in the direction of Safari in this regard in the future. Heck, there's already been a big shift. Firefox had extensions first, and originally those were native code, no sandboxing or security at all, until they switched to the newer WebExtensions standard a couple years ago. DuckDuckGo and Mozilla both are doing great work pushing the whole web toward something better, more sustainable, and less -- frankly -- scary. God bless em! <3
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Cheers! :chuffed:
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