Brave’s browser one-ups Chrome with its new support for email aliases

Chrome alternative Brave just added a good reason to make the switch to its browser: email aliases. The feature, announced this week, allows Brave’s users to sign up for websites and other online services without having to share their personal email addresses.

To use the feature, you first need to create an account with Brave, where you can provide your real email address. Then, once logged into the browser, you’ll see a pop-up appear when clicking an email field on a website, offering the option to use an alias instead. (If the pop-up doesn’t appear, just right-click on the field to access the option.) The email alias will be filled in on the website’s form, and any emails coming to that address will be forwarded to your primary email account.

The company explains that using an alias can protect your privacy, particularly because websites use your email as a personal identifier, allowing them to target you for ads. Ad tech giants like Meta are also able to match the email you provided to a retailer’s website, for instance, with the address they have on file for you, allowing these companies to track what you bought or viewed.

Plus, if any website where you shared your email gets hacked, the hackers will then know your primary email address, and this information can be leaked and shared with data brokers.

Brave says it built the new feature to plug this privacy hole, adding that it doesn’t read the contents of emails sent to an alias — it only processes them for spam and virus filtering. After the email is forwarded, Brave deletes it from its servers. All data in users’ Brave accounts is also encrypted at rest, and any notes you save alongside an alias are stored locally on your device, unless you turn on the sync option. If syncing is enabled, notes will be encrypted end-to-end.

As the email alias feature is still new, Brave cautioned that some of the forwarded mail may initially go to your spam folder, but this should improve as Brave builds up its reputation score as a mail provider.

For the time being, Brave users are being offered five free email aliases. More will be available for Premium plan users in the future.