Not least of all, the risks are effectively the same as using a single password for all of your accounts. And that, by all accounts, is a bad idea. Somebody may breach one account — in this case, your Google account — and then all of your others are effectively breached too. So there’s always that risk. And it comes despite Google’s best efforts, including security checks available on every platform. Fortunately, Google isn’t forcing anybody to use the sign-in service. Or, for that matter, to use sign-in prompts. In fact, you can turn sign-in prompts off altogether for your Google account, if you so desire. But that’s not necessarily intuitive either. So that’s exactly what this guide sets out to explain.
There are, of course, some prerequisites
It’s worth noting here, prior to getting started, that the setting you’ll need to change for this isn’t a setting with individual websites. And it isn’t a setting associated with any given browser individually either. Instead, it’s a Google account setting. That means that turning this off won’t just turn it off for your computer or smartphone. It’ll turn it off anywhere you choose to log in with your Google account. That also means that, unless you put your browser in desktop mode on your smartphone, this won’t work from your phone. That’s an easy enough process in its own right. You can typically find an option in the three-dot or other browser menu on any page in almost every mobile browser. And it’s easy enough to spot since it’s generally an obviously named option. In Chrome, for instance, it’s a checkbox labeled “Desktop site.” Otherwise, as shown in the sample images below and unlike many of our how-to guides, you’ll need to be in the full browser to access the setting. We’re using Chrome on a Chromebook, in our example, but it will be the same regardless of which desktop OS you’re using and regardless of which browser you’re using. As long as you’re signed into Chrome in that browser on that platform.
