DuckDuckGo's privacy-focused Email Protection Beta now available to everyone

(Image Courtesy: DuckDuckGo)

DuckDuckGo's @duck email addresses are now open to everyone. The search engine's Email Protection beta is no longer on waitlist, and anyone can now sign up for the service to try it out.

Email Protection Beta is a free email forwarding service, where you can make multiple unique id's, to be used for sites that exist only to target you for ads. For example - Newsletter subscriptions.

Once set-up, the mail will automatically be forwarded to your @duck mail address, and the service will remove all the hidden trackers on the email, and then forward it back to your primary email address.

The service also allows you to randomly generate one-use email id's, meant to be used for sites that you don't trust. These also work the same way, and keep your original email id hidden.

In case you are wondering what trackers are, they are hidden tools embedded within emails that you receive. These tell companies when you received an email, when you opened it, your location when you opened the mail, and the device you used to read the mail.

This information is collated to build a profile about you, so that you can be targeted for ads online. If you have ever wondered why you suddenly start seeing ads about a product after you received a mail, this is why.

To use Email Protection, you will need to download the DuckDuckGo browser extension on your preferred browser and then navigate to this page.

Now simply enter the @duck id you want to use, and the primary address you want to receive the mail on, and you are good to go.