This article was published on May 4, 2020

Mozilla’s handy new Firefox extension generates burner email addresses on-demand


Mozilla’s handy new Firefox extension generates burner email addresses on-demand

Over the weekend, Mozilla launched a new email relay service called Firefox Private Relay. The idea is to provide an ’email alias’ wherever a company or a service asks for your email address, so that you can avoid giving out your actual address and protect your identity.

The product is currently in the testing stage and only available as a browser extension for Firefox. Plus, you’ll have to request an invite on the site to get it.

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The inner workings of this product are similar to what Sign in with Apple does while requiring an email ID. However, just to be clear, this is not a sign-in service.

“When a form requires your email address, click the relay button to give an alias instead. We will forward emails from the alias to your real inbox,” Mozilla says on its product page.

The service will generate a unique alias for you every time you sign up with a new website. The company says you’ll be able to delete or disable aliases anytime you want.

This is quite useful when you’re visiting a site just to try its service or check out its content, or signing up for a newsletter.

As per a report from ZDNet, the firm will formally launch the service later this year.

Firefox Private Relay’s code is open-sourced. You can check it out here.

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