Google sign-ins will require JavaScript soon

Google users who have disabled JavaScript in the browsers that they are using to browse the Internet won’t be able to sign-in to their Google accounts anymore soon unless they enable JavaScript for the login process.

Google announced yesterday that it will make JavaScript mandatory on sign-in pages and that it will display a “couldn’t sign you in” message to users who have it disabled.

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Internet users disable JavaScript for a number of reasons and most are well aware of the issues associated with that. A browser extension like NoScript blocks JavaScript execution by default to improve user privacy and security on the Internet.

Scripts don’t run without JavaScript which reduces or even eliminates tracking, advertisement and malicious attacks.

Websites may load faster and users may save bandwidth if JavaScript is disabled or blocked in the browser. Some sites, however, will break if JavaScript is disabled as they use scripts for some or even all functionality provided.

Google explains that it wants to run a risk assessment during sign-in to Google accounts and that it requires JavaScript for that.

When your username and password are entered on Google’s sign-in page, we’ll run a risk assessment and only allow the sign-in if nothing looks suspicious. We’re always working to improve this analysis, and we’ll now require that JavaScript is enabled on the Google sign-in page, without which we can’t run this assessment.

The company goes on to explain that only 0.01% of Internet users run browsers in which JavaScript is disabled. While Google does not mention it explicitly, most bots on the Internet run with JavaScript disabled to improve performance and avoid detection mechanisms.

Google announced the launch of reCAPTCHA version 3 recently which promises to do away with annoying captchas by running risk assessments and giving sites control over what happens when scores below a set threshold are given.

Google changed the sign-in process in 2013 from the traditional username and password form to a multi-page form. The company enabled a link between sign-ins in its Chrome web browser and Google services on the Internet in 2018.

Closing Words

Some may suggest that Google’s motivation for making JavaScript a requirement for account sign-ins is not based entirely on the desire to better protect Google accounts from login-related attacks. Google is an advertisement company first and foremost, and the bulk of advertisement on the Internet relies on JavaScript.

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