Last year, DuckDuckGo announced a free service designed to block email trackers and help people protect their privacy. The beta of Email Protection was initially available via a waiting list. Now, it is in open beta, which means anyone can try it without having to wait for access.
Email Protection is a forwarding service that removes trackers from messages. Also, DuckDuckGo will tell you which trackers it cleans. During the beta of the waiting list, DuckDuckGo says it found trackers in 85 percent of testers' emails.
Anyone can now sign up for an @duck.com email address, which will work on desktop, iOS , and Android. DuckDuckGo says you can create unlimited private email addresses. You can also deactivate an address at any time.
Personal addresses assign a name of your choice to your address, such as emma@duck.com. Private addresses work differently — each time you start filling an email field, DuckDuckGo generates a random address, which may look like avtzqdr@duck.com.
See also: DuckDuckGo: Increases protection against Microsoft trackers
The company is beefing up Email Protection with more privacy- focused measures . It says Link Tracking Protection helps prevent tracking in email links, while Smarter Encryption upgrades unencrypted HTTP links in emails to secure HTTPS links whenever possible. Additionally, you can now reply to messages with a random @duck.com address instead of your regular email account .
See also: DuckDuckGo announces a new Mac web browser with a focus on privacy
Email Protection is available in the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser for iOS and Android. Go to the Email Protection section of your settings to try it out. On desktop, you'll need the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extension for Firefox, Chrome, Edge , and Brave , or the DuckDuckGo Mac browser. Just visit the email section of the company's website.
Information source: engadget.com
