New Firefox service will generate unique email aliases to enter in online forms

May 1, 2020 TH Author

Firefox Private Relay Image: Mozilla

Browser maker Mozilla is working on a new service called Private Relay that generates unique aliases to hide a user’s email address from advertisers and spam operators when filling in online forms.

The service entered testing last month and is currently in a closed beta, with a public beta currently scheduled for later this year, ZDNet has learned.

Private Relay will be available as a Firefox add-on that lets users generate a unique email address — an email alias — with one click.

The user can then enter this email address in web forms to send contact requests, subscribe to newsletters, and register new accounts.

“We will forward emails from the alias to your real inbox,” Mozilla says on the Firefox Private Relay website.

“If any alias starts to receive emails you don’t want, you can disable it or delete it completely,” the browser maker said.

The concept of an email alias has existed for decades, but managing them has always been a chore, or email providers didn’t allow users access to such a feature.

Through Firefox Private Relay, Mozilla hopes to provide an easy to use solution that can let users create and destroy email aliases with a few button clicks.

Mozilla now becomes the second major tech giant that’s working on an email alias and private relay service. Apple announced a similar email alias feature for its upcoming “Sign in with Apple” login system last year, at the WWDC 2019 developer conference.