That is required to provide all our various web tracking protections: https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/privacy/we...
"Why do you need my house keys to deliver mail?"
"So we can put packages inside the house in case it's raining hard and you are not at home."
"That's OK, I have a good porch and would rather you put everything not fitting in the mailbox there"
"Studies show that users prefer dry packages and may be concerned with theft. We need this in order to provide secure delivery in all conditions, take it or leave it"
No: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
> Use the `optional_permissions` key to list permissions that you want to ask for at runtime, after your extension has been installed.