Extension: Fire Button

Primarily, DuckDuckGo users seek a safe and private browsing experience. Until recently, due to certain limitations (both technical and UI), we were unable to fully port the Fire button, along with Fireproofing, from our native apps to our browser extension.

Summary

As a Project Lead and Product Designer, my objective was to integrate the Fire button and Fireproofing functionality into our browser extension. Although the task posed significant challenges, it was an opportunity to delve into the issues at hand and explore possible workarounds and alternatives.

The core challenge was to create a feasible, user-friendly solution that improves data privacy and security for extension users, now and in the future. The resulting feature—a Fire button—provides users with better control over data removal. Nonetheless, the process was not without its complexities, primarily stemming from extension limitations and the fact that our Fireproofing feature proved too complex to reliably port when we shipped.

By establishing solid groundwork with this project, we mark an essential milestone in enhancing DuckDuckGo's utility as a secure internet search platform. The introduced feature ensures a safer browsing experience, allowing users to clear data from a specific period (e.g., delete data from the past two days) or simply just for a single website.

The DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extension is available for Chromium-powered browsers and Firefox.