My questions are:
- Does the DuckDuckGo Firefox extension "Privacy Essentials" add a local css file to every visited site?
- Can others reproduce this?
- Is this harmfull or not?
Background:
I have a simple static one page site with just one html and css file. It's completely tracker free. Debugging it a bit with developer mode (F12) on I discovered a second css file. This file isnt on my webserver but added local. To pinpoint what caused this I removed every add-on / extension in my browser one by one, reloading and checking my website every time. Took me a while because didnt expect this one causing it.
To reproduce:
- Install the extension from the link.
- Open a random site
- Check in developer mode the tab Style editor.
- Scroll and look for a file named %3Ais(%5Bid*%3D'google_ads_iframe'%5D%.css or something like that.
- Remove the extension and refresh.
- Check if the file disappears.
Content of the css file: :is([id*='google_ads_iframe'], [id*='taboola-'], .taboolaHeight, .taboola-placeholder, #credential_picker_container, #credentials-picker-container, #credential_picker_iframe, [id*='google-one-tap-iframe'], #google-one-tap-popup-container, .google-one-tap-modal-div, #amp_floatingAdDiv, #ez-content-blocker-container) { display:none!important; min-height:0!important; height:0!important; }
Without looking too much, I think it is to remove white spaces left behind by removing google ads.
I dont use the extension, but I saw a CAPTCHA on ddg for the first time the other day. I'm not a bot, but why would it even matter if I wrote a bot that used ddg?
Sigh, what's the best ddg alternative?