The developers of the search engine DuckDuckGo have created an email service that removes any trackers from incoming messages, which, for example, help create user profiles for targeted advertising. Service users receive a free address at @ duck.com, where emails are cleared of trackers and then sent to a regular mailbox.
The service is currently running in a closed beta test. So far, you can only use it by standing in the “queue” through a special waiting list, new applications to which are accepted daily.
Various trackers can inform email senders when a user opens their message, and help advertising companies create a person profile based on the collected metadata (which device was used to read the email, when it was opened, location data, and so on). Worse, this data could end up in the hands of third parties.
“If you are using an email service like Gmail or Yahoo, this is not a problem! Emails sent to your personal Duck address will arrive there as usual, so you can read your email as usual, in any application or on the Internet, without any problems, ”the developers of DuckDuckGo say.
Also, the new service will provide disposable mailboxes, for example, for use on untrusted sites that can obsessively spam messages or share email addresses with someone else.
DuckDuckGo assures that the service “will not save your emails” in any case, and mail will only be processed in memory. So, having received an email, the service will remove hidden trackers from it and send it to the specified address, without even saving the accompanying headers, for example, indicating the senders and recipients.
The recipient’s final address is the only personal information that DuckDuckGo will retain (for obvious reasons). But if a user wants to delete his account, his email address will eventually also be removed from the system within 30 days.