DuckDuckGo Rolls out New Email Protection Feature

Paoli based DuckDuckGo rolls out a new email privacy service meant to stop ad companies from spying on your inbox. The company’s new Email protection feature provides users with a free “@duck.com” email address, which will forward emails to your regular inbox after analyzing their contents for trackers and stripping any away.

 Paoli based DuckDuckGo is extending this feature with unique, disposable forwarding addresses, which can be generated easily in mobile browser or through desktop browser extensions.The personal DuckDuckGo email is meant to be given out to friends and contacts you know, while the disposable addresses are better served when signing up for free trials, newsletters, or anywhere you suspect might sell your email address. If the email address is compromised, you can easily deactivate it.

The tool is similar to the feature used by Apple in iOS 14 and iOS 15, but DuckDuckGo approach integrates into iOS, Android, and all major web browsers. Paoli based will also make it easier to spin up disposable email addresses on the fly, for newsletters or anywhere you might share your email.Tackling email privacy has been a major goal for DuckDuckGo, as the company pushes for privacy-friendly methods for various online tasks. The company began with its eponymous DuckDuckGo search engine and has introduced its mobile browser and desktop browser extensions to remove trackers while surfing the web.

Email trackers exist in more than 70% of mailing lists, according to a highly cited 2017 study. Once implemented, they let advertisers figure out when you open the email, where you are when you open it, and which device you’re using. Removing trackers from email removes data points from lists building hidden advertising profiles on you, which have become a priority for privacy advocates in recent years.