Brave has just added a new privacy feature that can be especially useful for those who want to avoid giving their real email address to every service on the internet. With the release of Brave 1.94 for desktop, the browser introduces Email Aliases , a system that allows users to create alternative email addresses to register on websites and receive messages in their primary email account without revealing the latter.
This feature is part of Brave's strategy to expand its privacy tools beyond ad and tracker blocking. Aliases act as an intermediary layer between the user and online services, so a website receives an alternative address instead of the user's personal email. This also reduces the exposure of the real address and makes it easier to stop receiving messages from a particular service if it later starts generating spam.
Brave Email Aliases protects your real email address
The idea behind Brave Email Aliases is simple: instead of always entering the same email address when a website asks to register, the user can provide an alias generated by Brave.
Messages sent to that alias are subsequently forwarded to the main inbox. This way, the service requesting registration does not need to know the user's real email address to send them emails.
This provides a clear advantage from a privacy standpoint. If different services use different alternate addresses, it becomes easier to limit the exposure of the primary address and detect which service is associated with a particular address.
A barrier against spam and cross-service tracking
Brave also presents Email Aliases as a tool to reduce spam. If a user creates an alias to register on a particular website and that address subsequently starts receiving unwanted messages, they can take action on that alias without having to change their primary email address.
Separation can also hinder certain tracking mechanisms between services. Using a single email address across multiple websites provides a relatively stable identifier that can be used to link accounts belonging to the same user.
Aliases break part of that relationship by providing different addresses for different records. They are not a complete solution against all forms of online tracking, but they do eliminate a piece of information that can be used to link activities.
The feature is integrated into Brave 1.94
Email Aliases is included in Brave desktop versions starting with version 1.94 . The company has integrated the feature directly into Brave, so there's no need to install a separate extension to use it.
The browser may offer the option to create an alias during certain interactions with registration forms. This feature is also accessible from the browser's interface, allowing users to manage their available aliases.
The browser integration has a significant advantage: Brave can detect when the user is faced with a form that requests an email address and offer the alias within the autocomplete flow itself.
Aliases can be used for different services
The system is designed so that users can have different aliases depending on the services they register for. This allows them to use an alternative address for an online store, another for a social network, and yet another for a service they want to try out, for example.
Separation also makes it easier to identify the origin of certain messages. If an address created specifically for a service starts receiving advertising from other companies, the user can find out which alias is being used and take appropriate action.
Brave is also working on improving the selection of existing aliases. The project aims to make it easier for users to choose an alias they've already created from the context menu and the autocomplete pop-up window.
Brave also introduces Brave Accounts
The launch of Email Aliases is accompanied by Brave Accounts , the new account system used to access certain company services.
Brave particularly emphasizes the privacy design of this system. The company states that passwords used to log in via Brave Accounts are never sent to its servers: not in plain text, not encrypted, and not as hashes.
To achieve this, Brave uses the OPAQUE cryptographic protocol . The goal is to allow authentication without the server having to receive the user's password, providing a different architecture from that typically used by traditional account systems.
A feature that complements Brave's privacy tools
Email Aliases fits in with other privacy features that Brave has been adding to the browser over the past few years. The company already offers ad and tracker blocking, fingerprinting protection, and other tools designed to reduce the amount of information websites can collect.
The difference in this case is that Brave intervenes at a different level of browsing. While a blocker prevents certain tracking or advertising techniques, aliases modify the information that the user voluntarily provides when registering for a service.
This makes Email Aliases a complementary tool. It doesn't replace Brave's existing protections, but rather adds a way to limit the exposure of one of the most widely used identifiers on the internet: the email address.
There is no need to change your email provider
One of the advantages of the system is that the user does not need to create a new traditional email account every time they want to separate a record from their personal address.
The alias functions as an alternate address that redirects messages to the main account. Therefore, the user maintains their usual inbox while using different addresses when interacting with external services.
This approach can be much more convenient than maintaining several separate email accounts, especially for those who simply want to avoid providing their personal address to certain websites.
Brave continues to expand its commitment to privacy
The arrival of Email Aliases shows how Brave is progressively expanding the concept of a private browser. The company is no longer just blocking elements on web pages, but is incorporating services that allow users to better control the data they share with third parties.
The alias system can be particularly useful for occasional registrations, service testing, and pages where the user needs to provide an email address but does not want to expose the one they usually use.
With Brave 1.94, the company adds another tool to reduce the exposure of personal information online. Brave Email Aliases doesn't eliminate all mechanisms by which a company can identify a user, but it does provide a simple way to prevent your real email address from becoming a permanent identifier shared with every online service.