DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection Makes it Easy for Users to Block Email Trackers

Users can get a free, personal @duck.com email address; emails sent to it will forward to your regular inbox, with creepy email trackers removed.

DuckDuckGo Email Protection

You may be surprised to learn that 70% of emails contain trackers that can detect when you’ve opened a message, where you were when you opened it, and what device you were using. If that isn’t creepy enough, this email data can be used to profile you, including to target you with ads, and influence the content you see online. Ever open an email and see a related ad about it soon thereafter? Yup, you can blame email trackers. This data about you is also usually sent directly to third parties, most likely without your consent.

DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection comes to the rescue

DuckDuckGo has recently announced the beta release of DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection; it is a free email forwarding service that removes email trackers and protects the privacy of your personal email address without asking you to change email services or apps.

While most existing email privacy solutions come with significant tradeoffs, that is not the case with DuckDuckGo’s solution. It doesn’t require that you switch email services or apps entirely, or degrade your email experience by hiding all images. Rather, it’s simple and seamless, “like the rest of DuckDuckGo’s privacy protection bundle.”

How does it work?

You first choose your Duck Email Address (you@duck.com) and start giving it out. DuckDuckGo will then remove hidden trackers from incoming emails sent to this address, then forward them to your regular inbox for safer reading. This means if you use an email service like Gmail or Yahoo, it’s no problem. Emails sent to your Personal Duck Address will arrive there as usual so you can read your email like normal, in any app or on the web, worry-free.

Better yet, if you use the DuckDuckGo app and extension, you get easy access to your Personal Duck Address when browsing the web and also the option to generate new Private Duck Addresses on demand.

DuckDuckGo Email Protection - Proof of Trackers

On sites you think could spam you or share your email address, a Private Duck Address will protect you. Since it’s common for sites to upload your email address to Google and Facebook for ad targeting, or for your email to be leaked in a data breach, this extra level of identity protection is now unfortunately necessary. You can think of it as similar to not reusing the same password everywhere. There is also an easy way to deactivate your Private Duck Addresses, so there’s no stress if you start receiving too much spam.

The best part is that DuckDuckGo will never save your emails for this service. When it receives an email, the service will immediately remove trackers and then forward the email to you — never saving it anywhere.

DuckDuckGo Email Protection - Autofill

How to get DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection?

The service is now out in beta, and you can join the private waitlist. You won’t need to share any personal information to join in.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Download DuckDuckGo for iOS or Android
  2. Open Settings > Beta Features > Email Protection
  3. Click “Join the Private Waitlist.”

And you’re almost there – as soon as your new email is “ready,” you’ll be notified and be able to use it everywhere. It’s easy and just the way we like it. 😉