This is one of those absolutely inherently bad policies — to save your passwords online on a 3rd party’s site. It is one of those self-evident things such as all people being created equal. We do not save our passwords onto a 3rd party site, especially Google’s.
I encountered this today and went looking for a way to turn it off, to turn off the prompt. I’m someone uneasy with the idea that it is even there, because even if you say no they could still do it and you’d never know. Google is known to be a company that tracks and monitors you at every angle, and giving them this sort of capability on Android is absolutely dangerous. They have also been known to lie saying that they weren’t collecting data if you turned off a feature, such as location, yet they were. I shouldn’t even have to further explain why.
I searched to see how to turn this feature off. I found Google specific posts that say to go into settings, choose Google and then Security and check the box that says to not offer to save passwords. This isn’t there under Android 9.
I tried also to follow others that offered various other ways, but those weren’t there either.
That means that the option is hidden and is done so on purpose IMHO. Why prompt users so obviously and then hide the feature to turn it off. This should have the choice each and every time the prompt is presented — to turn it off.
I found a solution. You go into settings, then general management, then language and input. Near the middle you’ll find someone called Autofill service. There’s a settings cog icon off to the right. Click that. At the bottom you’ll find “Passwords”. Has a key icon in front of it. Click that. Then there’s an option for “Password Manager”. Click the cog icon off to the right. Then turn off “Offer to save passwords”. I also turned off “Auto sign-in”. That’s 8 levels deep to select to turn off an option that is quite dangerous and should be available as an option up front.
Settings > General Management > Language and Input > Autofill Service > Passwords > Password Manager > Offer to save passwords
Too much.
Imagine someone breaking into Google (don’t give me any nonsense that they encrypt it). Or imagine them giving all this data to the authorities without your knowledge or ability to dispute their right to do so. There’s a recent situation where the government asked to get all the cell users that were in or around a specific location, which effectively gave up everyone’s data that was nearby to the government. Why is this important. You don’t want your information given out or searched without you knowing, e.g., like entering your home without probable cause.