Brave Browser has introduced a new privacy feature that lets users create a different email address when signing up for websites, instead of giving those websites their real email address. The feature, called Email Aliases, is designed to help people keep their main email address private while still receiving messages from the websites they sign up for.
This may sound like a small change, but your email address can reveal more about you than you may realise. People often use the same email address across shopping websites, social media platforms, newsletters, apps and online services. By giving different websites the same email address, it can become easier for companies to connect your activity across different places on the internet.
Brave’s new Email Aliases feature is designed to reduce that connection. Instead of giving a website your main email address, Brave can create a separate address for you, and messages sent to that address can still reach your normal inbox.
What Is Brave’s New Email Alias Feature?
An email alias is simply another email address that can receive messages for you without revealing your main email address.
For example, imagine your real email address is john@example.com. You want to sign up for an online shopping website, but you do not want to give the website your real address.
Instead, Brave can create an alias such as something@bravealias.com for you. The shopping website sees the alias, but messages sent to that address can be forwarded to your real inbox.
The website therefore has an email address it can use to contact you, but it does not need to know your main email address.
This is the basic idea behind Brave’s new feature.
Why Does Hiding Your Email Address Matter?
Many people think of their email address as nothing more than a way to receive messages. However, it can also become a useful identifier that helps companies connect information about you.
You may use one email address to create an account on a news website, another account on an online store and another account on a mobile app. If all of those services have your same email address, it becomes easier to connect those accounts to the same person.
That does not automatically mean that every company is tracking you in a harmful way. However, Brave argues that email addresses can act as a persistent identifier that websites and advertising companies can use to connect activity across different services.
Email aliases provide another layer of separation.
If every website gets a different email address, it becomes harder to connect all of those accounts simply through the email address you provided.
How Does Brave Email Alias Work?
The process is designed to be simple.
When you visit a website and it asks for your email address, Brave can offer you the option to create an email alias. Instead of typing your personal email address into the website, you can use the alias created by Brave.
That alias is then connected to your real inbox.
If the website sends you an account confirmation, receipt, delivery update or other message, the email can be forwarded to your normal email account.
The website does not need to know the real email address behind the alias.
This means you can continue using your normal inbox without giving every website the same email address.
What Happens When You Receive an Email?
One of the useful parts of the feature is that you do not need to create a completely new inbox for every alias.
Brave says messages sent to an alias are forwarded to the user’s existing email address. This means you can receive messages normally even though the sender only knows the alias.
For example, you could use one alias for an online store and another for a newsletter.
Both messages could still arrive in your main inbox.
The difference is that the websites would not have your main email address.
This makes the feature useful for people who want more privacy without the trouble of managing several separate email accounts.
You Can Use Different Aliases for Different Websites
This is where the feature becomes more useful.
Instead of creating one alternative email address and giving it to every website, you can create separate aliases for different services.
You could have one alias for a shopping website, another for a news website and another for an app.
If one website starts sending too many marketing emails, the alias can help you identify where those messages are coming from.
This also gives users more control over their online accounts. If an alias becomes unwanted or starts receiving too much spam, you can stop using that particular address without necessarily changing your main email address.
Brave Is Not Reading Your Emails
Privacy users may naturally ask an important question. If Brave is forwarding the emails, does that mean Brave can read them?
According to Brave, the service does not read the content of emails sent through an alias. Brave says messages are processed for spam and virus filtering before being forwarded, but the company says the email content itself is not logged.
That is an important part of the company’s privacy argument.
The purpose of the feature is to hide your real email address, not to give Brave another place to collect information about your messages.
However, users should still understand that no online service should be treated as completely risk-free. It is always important to read the privacy terms of any service you choose to use, especially when that service handles communication or personal information.
How Many Email Aliases Can You Create?
The feature is currently limited.
Brave says users can create five free email aliases. The company plans to make more aliases available to Premium users in the future.
Five aliases may be enough for someone who only wants to protect their email address on a few important websites.
However, people who regularly create accounts on many websites may quickly reach that limit.
The good thing is that you do not necessarily need a new alias for every single website. You can decide where an alias is most useful, especially on websites where you expect marketing messages or where you are not sure how your email address will be used.
Is This the Same as Creating a New Email Account?
No.
Creating a new email account usually means creating another inbox that you need to manage separately.
An email alias is different because it acts more like a forwarding address.
You can give the alias to a website, but the messages can still arrive in your existing inbox. You therefore do not need to remember another password or regularly check another mailbox just to see messages from the website.
This makes aliases easier for ordinary users who want more privacy without adding another complicated system to their daily lives.
What If a Website Sells or Shares Your Email Address?
This is one situation where email aliases could be useful.
Suppose you sign up for three different websites using three different aliases. If one alias suddenly starts receiving a large amount of spam, you may have a better idea of which website was responsible.
The alias can therefore act as a kind of barrier between your main email address and the websites you use.
It does not stop every form of online tracking. Websites can still collect information through cookies, browser tracking, account activity, device information and other methods.
What it does is remove one simple piece of information that can be used to connect your activity, your main email address.
Does Brave’s Feature Stop Spam?
Not completely.
An email alias does not magically prevent spam from reaching your inbox. If a website sends unwanted messages to your alias, those messages can still be forwarded to your main email account.
However, the feature can give you another way to deal with the problem.
If you no longer want to receive messages connected to an alias, you can manage or stop using that address without changing your main email address.
That can be especially useful for newsletters, promotions and websites that send many marketing messages.
Brave Is Competing on Privacy
Brave has built much of its identity around online privacy.
The browser already includes features designed to reduce advertising and tracking, and the company has continued adding privacy tools to its products.
The new Email Aliases feature fits directly into that strategy.
Instead of asking users to trust every website with their real email address, Brave is giving users a way to create a layer between themselves and the websites they visit.
This is also part of a wider trend in technology.
More companies are now offering tools that allow people to hide personal information when signing up for online services. Apple, Google and other technology companies have also introduced different forms of email privacy and alias features over the years.
Brave is now bringing a similar idea directly into its browser.
How Is This Different From Chrome?
The Chrome comparison is interesting because Brave is presenting the feature as another privacy advantage.
Google Chrome is designed to work closely with Google’s wider ecosystem, while Brave has made privacy one of its major selling points.
Brave’s Email Aliases feature gives users a simple way to hide their main email address while filling out forms on websites.
This does not mean Chrome users cannot achieve the same result through other services. There are already several email alias providers that work across different browsers.
The difference is that Brave is building the feature into the browsing experience itself.
That could make it easier for ordinary users who would otherwise never think about using an email alias.
What Does This Mean for Ordinary Internet Users?
The biggest lesson is simple.
You do not have to give every website your real email address.
Your main email account is probably connected to important parts of your life. It may be used for banking notifications, work, school, social media, shopping and personal communication.
Giving that same address to every website creates unnecessary exposure.
Using an email alias gives you another option. You can still receive the messages you need while reducing the number of websites that know your actual email address.
This does not make you completely anonymous online, but it can give you more control over one important piece of personal information.
Is Brave’s Email Alias Feature Worth Using?
For people who care about online privacy, it is certainly worth considering.
The feature is especially useful when signing up for websites that you do not completely trust or services that are likely to send marketing emails. It can also be useful when you want to keep your main email address reserved for important personal, work or financial accounts.
There is no need to use an alias for every website.
You can simply use it when you think sharing your real email address is unnecessary.
The fact that Brave is offering five free aliases also makes it easy to try the feature without paying for a subscription.
The Bottom Line
Brave’s new Email Aliases feature is a simple idea that could make online privacy easier for ordinary people. Instead of giving every website your real email address, you can create an alternative address that forwards messages to your normal inbox.
The website gets the alias, while your main email address stays private.
That may not sound like a huge change, but email addresses have become an important part of how companies identify and communicate with users online. Using a different address for different websites can make it harder to connect all of your online activity through one email address.
Brave currently offers five free email aliases, with more planned for Premium users. The feature is available on desktop Brave version 1.94, making it another privacy tool built directly into the browser.
For anyone who regularly signs up for websites, newsletters, online stores and apps, the feature could be a simple way to share less personal information without making life more difficult.
Your email address may seem like a small piece of information, but it follows you across the internet. Brave’s latest update is essentially giving users a way to stop handing that same address to everyone.