In a nutshell: DuckDuckGo’s Electronic mail Safety is primarily centered on blocking e mail trackers and shielding your e mail deal with from firms. Customers can create a private @duck.com e mail deal with, and DuckDuckGo will take away hidden trackers from incoming messages earlier than forwarding them to customers’ inbox.
DuckDuckGo introduced this week that Electronic mail Safety is out there to everybody. This free e mail forwarding service will block hidden trackers and assist customers conceal their e mail addresses.
The closed Electronic mail Safety Beta launched final 12 months and located that roughly 85% of beta testers’ emails contained hidden trackers. Trackers enable firms to gather delicate info akin to your location, what time the e-mail was opened and what system was used. This info is then used for issues like focused adverts or shared with a 3rd get together.
As a further layer of safety, customers can generate distinctive personal addresses on the fly, which is able to then obfuscate their private @duck.com e mail deal with. Non-public addresses are limitless, to allow them to simply be deactivated and changed with new ones, that are randomly generated; this grants the person a excessive degree of anonymity.
When the DuckDuckGo extension detects an e mail discipline in a browser, it should give customers the choice to both use their private or personal @duck.com e mail deal with. So the private e mail deal with is supposed to be shared to trusted events, akin to mates and colleagues, whereas the personal e mail deal with can be utilized when customers suspect their deal with is likely to be compromised, akin to signing up for a free publication.
DuckDuckGo has been making steady enhancements to the service because the closed beta opened, including a number of new options. Hyperlink Monitoring Safety ensures that customers are protected when clicking a hyperlink in an e mail, stopping an organization from accessing private knowledge akin to their e mail deal with.
Smarter Encryption will improve HTTP hyperlinks to safe HTTPS hyperlinks — supplied the hyperlink is on DuckDuckGo’s upgradeable listing. Customers can now additionally reply with their @duck.com e mail deal with, nevertheless DuckDuckGo says “there isn’t a assure that the e-mail won’t embrace the forwarding deal with or every other private identifier.”
Desktop customers can strive the beta by including the DuckDuckGo Privateness Necessities extension to their browser and navigating to the e-mail service. Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Courageous are presently supported. Mac customers might want to seize DuckDuckGo for Mac (presently in beta). iOS and Android customers can entry the service by downloading the most recent model of the DuckDuckGo cell app, and choosing “Electronic mail Safety” in Settings.