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 requests 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 sign-up requirements without opening separate dashboards.
What is Firefox Relay
Firefox Relay is a free email protection system launched by Mozilla as a beta in August 2020, offering users a way to create email aliases that help them protect their actual email addresses from spammers and trackers.
The created aliases forward messages to the user’s real email address, so they maintain privacy and anonymity while still being able to enjoy online services.
If one of the aliases starts receiving spam or unwanted messages in general, it is easy for the user to delete it and create a new one without impacting their primary accounts.
Also, in the case of a data breach, the email address exposed to threat actors is just a disposable Firefox Relay alias, so the impact on the user is negligible.
Firefox says that since the launch of this privacy-enhancing service, it has blocked over 2.1 million unwanted emails.
Firefox Relay is very similar to DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection service, which also generates anonymous disposable aliases called “personal Duck addresses (@duck.com).”
However, Email Protection has the additional feature of automatically stripping email trackers on received messages before forwarding them to the user’s email address.
Built into Firefox
Until now, Firefox Relay was available as an extension, and to manage its aliases (masks), the user would have to launch a control dashboard.
Mozilla has now announced that the service will be integrated into the Firefox browser, and the option to use an alias or create a new one will be offered to Relay users. Of course, signing up for the Firefox Relay service will still be required.
Existing Relay users who don’t want to be prompted to use an email mask when a login pop-up is served may still opt out of the new feature.
Initially, Relay on the Firefox browser will be made 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 launch of Total Cookie Protection for the Android version of the Firefox browser, automatically blocking all cross-site trackers.
Total Cookie Protection was previously available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, creating a “cookie jar” for each website the user visits and restricting their loading to that specific website.