How to improve your privacy in your browser?

A new service to protect your emails from trackers, as well as protect your privacy online. After months of testing, the service is now available to everyone and can be configured to protect your email. Simply select the Duck address and the email address that you use to filter email and it will be sent there.

What is DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo Email Protection is a service that blocks trackers commonly found in incoming emails. In this way, the service aims to help improve your privacy. Often when you receive an email, especially a complex email that looks like a web page, it can contain trackers of various types. These trackers receive information about your device without your permission and can record when, where and from which device you opened an email, as well as what links it contains.

To accomplish this, DuckDuckGo allows you to generate duck email addresses. Note that this is not a new email account, it is an address that links directly to one of your personal emails. This address acts as a barrier or filter. When an email arrives at that address, DuckDuckGo will detect the tracker, remove it, and send a clean version of the email without the tracker to the email account associated with that address.

You can also use this address to register on any site without displaying your real email address. By simply using this @Duck email address, any email that may come from this site or services that purchase customer data from this site will be sent directly to our filters to eliminate all trackers.

How to use DuckDuckGo?

To use DuckDuckGo’s email protection, you must visit that service’s website. Its URL is duckduckgo.com/email. A page will appear prompting you to install the DuckDuckGo app. The app is available for iOS and Android and includes extensions for Firefox, Chrome, Brave, or Edge. There is also a Mac version for use with Safari. The link is on the email protection page.

Installing the selected add-on will update the duckduckgo.com/email website, but you can also update it yourself. You will then see two options available. In blue you have the option to start configuring the service and below you can sign up if you are already using the service. Now you should consult two pages that explain in English how this service works. DuckDuckGo does not store emails, it only processes emails when you make a request, and no questions are asked. for a lot of personal information. On these pages, just move on.

Now comes the most important part. On the next screen, you must select the @duck.com address you want to use, as long as it is free. Next, you will need to specify the email address to link to. This ensures that emails arriving at the Duck address are later forwarded to another address without a tracker.

A confirmation page appears showing the selected emails. Click the This is correct button to confirm that everything is OK and enable protection. If you want to change anything, you can go back and edit it by clicking the Back to Edit button.

Being able to configure DuckDuckGo as a search engine in other browsers, and using the application seems unnecessary.

In fact, it is very private, but there is room for improvement. The website loads a bit slow and the application is only in English, not Spanish. It may be interesting for a specific niche of users, but in practice the browser may be a bit inadequate for a more “general” use. Also, DuckDuckGo can be configured as a search engine in any application.