If you’re sick of signing up for new accounts online and then constantly getting spammed in the days and weeks afterward, Mozilla has an idea that might help. The company just announced that its Firefox Relay feature will be integrated directly into your Firefox web browser, and could help ensure your privacy without any additional hassle.
Firefox Relay works by allowing you to create email “masks” when you sign up for new accounts. Instead of entering your actual credentials in the registration field, Firefox Relay gives you a disposable address and phone number to use. All website messages, such as purchase receipts, are forwarded to your real email address, with all sender tracking information removed to protect your privacy.
That’s similar to DuckDuckGo’s email protection service, which also creates disposable email addresses and removes any trackers it finds. Additionally, Apple offers a Sign in with Apple tool that can hide your email address, while leaving trackers intact.
When it comes to Firefox Relay, you can let the browser create disposable email masks for you, or make your own on the spot. Firefox allows you to manage these skins once they are created and you can remove them if you start receiving spam messages through them.
baked right in
Firefox Relay is a free extension that you can install on your browser. Now that it’s also built right into Firefox, using it should be a much more streamlined experience. There’s no need to install anything extra or mess around with extra steps, as everything is already built into the browser.
There is a free tier of Firefox Relay, limited to five email skins. If you want unlimited skins and extra features like disposable phone numbers and the ability to answer emails anonymously, there are paid tiers too, starting at around $1 per month (phone protection currently requires signing up for a waiting list). .
Mozilla says that it is currently testing the integration of Firefox Relay into its browser on “numerous sites”, with the intention of expanding the feature “to more sites and to all Firefox users later this year”. If you are interested, you can sign up on the Firefox Relay website.
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