Its okay everybody, the CEO came out and said its *not* actually advertising but just simply an unsolicited, intrusive pop-up that tries to get users to use more of their services so its all good!
I think this only happens if you install the DDG extension. So it's not exactly unsolicited.
I totally get DDG wanting people to be aware of their services. I use their email proxy service and it seems like a solid addition to their portfolio. For me, anything that requires additional action or distraction when I'm just trying to do this one quick thing gets disabled / removed.
How often are people actually signing up for things? Maybe this could be a separate extension or at least have an easier way to mute the injected ad?
Has extension mentioned obnoxious inline ads as one of things it will be doing?
When people were installing it?
It's a bit weird to call intended functionality for sonething you install explicitly for that purpose an "ad". Let alone an "obnoxious" one.
I mean, how else would you expect "email protection in the browser" to work at an extension level, other than the extension trigerring a message with more information when you're about to type your email?
I think it would be reasonable to notify me about this new feature in a less disruptive way, like from the extension's existing information pane. Inserting that inline into the websites I use isn't the only way to notify me, but it does seem like the most obnoxious way to do that.