DuckDuckGo, which launched its Email Protection service with a private beta version last year, announced that the service is now available for all users. Email Protection is a forwarding service that assigns you a free “@duck.com” email address and catches email trackers before they reach your personal inbox.
If you’re not sure exactly what DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection service does… First, it lets you use a personal or private “duck” address to protect your real email address from companies. DuckDuckGo removes trackers from spying on your location when you open an email, before it reaches your inbox, and on the device you are using. It also shows how many trackers were removed and which companies they were affiliated with.
Personal addresses assign a name you choose for your duck address, such as [email protected]. Also, custom addresses take things a little further, every time you start populating an email field, DuckDuckGo generates a random address that might look like [email protected]. Using a new private address every time you fill out an online form will make it even harder for companies to track you. You can also disable each private address individually if one address gets too much spam.
With DuckDuckGo opening this beta to everyone, it also adds a few new features. These features include link tracking protection, which removes all trackers embedded in links attached to emails (including those attached to images). There is also a smarter encryption feature that turns any connection using an unencrypted “http://” connection into a secure “https://” connection. A URL using HTTPS prevents hackers or your internet service provider (ISP) from seeing how you interact with a website.
Additionally, DuckDuckGo now allows you to reply from your duck address, whether you’re using a private or personal address. This feature can help you hide your email address when replying to a company or person that you may not want to know about your personal address or identity. However, because the email is actually sent from your personal email client like Gmail, DuckDuckGo says it “cannot guarantee that the email will not contain your forwarding address or any other personal identifiers.”
DuckDuckGo has also introduced a new self-service dashboard that lets you change your forwarding address and make other changes to your duck accounts. You can try the beta yourself using the DuckDuckGo extension for Firefox, Chrome and Edge, or access it via the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser (still in beta) for iOS, Android and Mac.
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