Mozilla has announced the integration of Firefox Relay, an email protection system that helps users evade trackers and spammers, directly into the Firefox browser.
From now on, whenever a user browses a website that asks them to create an account, Firefox Relay will offer to generate a new email mask or use an existing one.
This makes using the feature much easier and more convenient, helping Firefox users navigate through registration requirements without opening separate panels.
What is Firefox Relay?
Firefox Relay is a free email protection system released by Mozilla as a beta version in August 2020, which offers users a way to create email aliases that help protect their real email addresses from spammers and trackers.
Created aliases forward messages to the user’s real email address, thus maintaining privacy and anonymity while still being able to enjoy online services.
If one of the aliases starts getting spam or general junk messages, it’s easy for the user to delete it and create a new one without affecting their primary accounts.
Also, in the event of a data breach, the email address exposed to threat actors is just a Firefox Relay disposable alias, so the user impact is negligible.
Firefox says that since the launch of this privacy-enhancing service, it has blocked more than 2.1 million spam emails.
Firefox Relay is very similar to DuckDuckGo’s email protection service, which also generates anonymous disposable aliases called “Duck’s personal addresses (@duck.com)”.
However, Email Protection has the added feature of automatically removing email trackers from received messages before forwarding them to the user’s email address.
Integrated in Firefox
Until now, Firefox Relay was available as an extension and to manage its aliases (skins), the user had to launch a control panel.
Mozilla has now announced that the service will be integrated into the Firefox browser, and Relay users will be given the option to use an alias or create a new one. Of course, you will still need to register with the Firefox Relay service.
Existing Relay users who do not want to be required to wear an email mask when a login popup is displayed can still opt out of the new feature.
Initially, Relay in the Firefox browser will be available to a limited number of users and websites, but Mozilla promised to expand it to all users and more sites later this year.
Mozilla also announced the release of Total Cookie Protection for the Android version of the Firefox browser, which automatically blocks all cross-site trackers.
Previously, Total Cookie Protection was available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, creating a “cookie jar” for each website the user visits and restricting their loading to that specific website.
