To get rid of trackers, DuckDuckGo introduces a new email protection service
With the debut of its new email privacy service, DuckDuckGo hopes to prevent advertising agencies from monitoring your mailbox.
Users can get a free “@duck.com” email account with the company’s new Email Protection function. Emails will be forwarded to your regular inbox after being scanned for trackers and any removed. Additionally, DuckDuckGo is expanding this capability by adding one-of-a-kind, disposable forwarding addresses. These may be created with ease using the desktop browser extension or the mobile browser.
You should share your personal Duck Duck Go email address with friends and acquaintances, and you should use the disposable addresses for free trial registration, newsletter subscriptions, and any other place you think could sell your email address. Deactivating the email address is simple if it has been compromised.
While Apple’s anti-tracking features in iOS 14 and iOS 15 are comparable to these tools, DuckDuckGo’s method is compatible with iOS, Android, and all major web browsers. Additionally, DuckDuckGo will streamline the process of creating one-time throwaway email accounts for newsletters or any other place you might share your email.
DuckDuckGo has made addressing email privacy a top priority as it advocates for privacy-friendly techniques for a range of online activities. The startup started with its search engine, DuckDuckGo, and more recently, it released its own desktop and mobile browser extensions that allow users to block trackers as they browse the web.
More than 70% of mailing lists use email trackers, per a widely referenced 2017 study. When they are put into practice, they enable advertising to determine your device, location, and the time you open your email. Email tracker removal eliminates data points from lists that create secret advertising profiles about you. In recent years, privacy campaigners have made this a top goal.
Consumer research, according to Weinberg, indicated that it would be difficult to convince someone to switch to a completely new email address and service. Hence, the Email Protection program serves as an intermediary layer that guards access to your inbox rather than developing a separate email service.
CEO Gabriel Weinberg tells The Verge, “Our high-level goal is to make simple privacy protection available for everyone, wherever they are.” Therefore, we’re working to integrate this with every major operating system, email provider, and browser that you use.
The idea of a relay email account is perhaps familiar to iPhone users—Hide My Email is a function that Apple debuted with iOS 14. Your iPhone may offer a randomly generated Apple email address when you register for an app using an Apple device. Emails that arrive at a random address keep the program from learning your actual email address. Apple is introducing similar tools in iOS 15 to thwart email trackers and safeguard privacy.
According to Weinberg, DuckDuckGo’s cross-platform Email Protection provides a consistent experience with temporary email accounts across mobile, desktop, iPhone, and Android platforms, setting it apart from Apple’s solutions. However, the way the software zaps on trackers varies as well. Apple packs its servers with trackers, which return inaccurate data to the trackers’ servers. Simply said, DuckDuckGo eliminates them from the email before it even loads. Although most users won’t see this change, it does exist.
It is simple to set up the gadget. Through the DuckDuckGo mobile app, users can sign up by selecting Email Protection on the Settings tab. After that, they can sign up for the waitlist, which DuckDuckGo claims is unique as it doesn’t require an email address; instead, it uses the app to maintain a timestamp that indicates the user’s position in line.
According to DuckDuckGo, users will get a notification to set up the feature after having to wait a few weeks. Selecting a new “Duck.com” email address and doing some quick reading on the privacy features are part of the setup process. The procedure emphasizes that DuckDuckGo does not view or store your email; instead, the tracker removal is carried out in the RAM of its servers rather than being written to a disk or hard drive. In order to avoid depending on a third party to process the emails before they get to your mailbox, DuckDuckGo also created the forwarding program from the ground up.
The DuckDuckGo desktop and mobile browser extensions are also integrated with the Email Protection function, allowing users to enter their “@duck.com” address or create a disposable address that sends emails to their inbox. To link the desktop and mobile browser extensions, navigate to the Email Protection welcome email in your desktop browser and click on the link.
From that point on, DuckDuckGo adds a little bar to the top of emails to tell you when trackers are eliminated once they are received, scanned, and forwarded to your inbox. By selecting that bar, a user can deactivate a compromised throwaway address or obtain more details about the trackers that have been blocked.
Importantly, the tool’s utility for harasser laundering is diminished since, although a person can reply to an email they receive on a “@duck.com” address, it cannot be used to send an email first.
DuckDuckGo is still investigating how the feature will work in the real world when it launches in a beta test. The business is also developing a desktop browser with privacy features, which it hopes to have finished by the end of 2021. This is part of a larger initiative to provide privacy-focused options for all significant online activities.
