Brave’s Browser Hides Your Real Email When You’re Signing Up for Websites

Have you ever received the dreadful notification that your go-to email address was exposed during a data breach? Me, too — but one browser touting itself as an alternative to Google Chrome just might have the solution.

Brave announced last Thursday that it has launched a new “email aliases” feature for its browser, allowing you to create several managed dummy email addresses that contain no personal information and will forward all relevant mail to your main email account.

There are multiple problems with sharing your email during a website sign-up. Aside from the obvious threat of bad actors trying to scrape your sensitive information during a data leak or the nuisance of your main account being targeted by repeated phishing scams, your email address can be used to track you across the web.

According to Brave, “ad tech companies like Google, Meta and LinkedIn publicly promote how businesses can upload email addresses to match customers against their own user profiles.” These companies have been known to trade information to find out what you buy and where you buy it, and continue to accumulate information about you. Brave writes that its email aliases were built to “plug this privacy hole.”

How to use Brave’s email aliases feature

The new email aliases feature isn’t automatically turned on, even if you’re already using Brave’s browser. There are a few easy steps you can follow to sign up for a free Brave account, start generating your five free dummy addresses and find your forwarded mail.

1. Navigate to the Brave login page (located at brave://settings/email-aliases) during your Brave desktop browsing session.
2. Sign up and verify your main email address.
3. While using the Brave browser, right-click on any website’s email address field in order to create and use a new email alias.
4. To manage email aliases, navigate to the “autofill & passwords” page located within the Brave browser settings.
5. All email alias mail will be forwarded to the email address used to sign up for the Brave account. Check the spam folder frequently to ensure no mail falls through the cracks.

But wait, doesn’t that mean Brave has my main email address?

Yes, you need to use your main email address to sign up for Brave (the company needs that address to forward you your mail). But having your main email in one place is better than having it spread all over the internet, caught up in hacks and potentially sold to data brokers.

Brave has also made several security assurances that make it seem less likely that your sensitive information is in jeopardy when using the email aliases service.

According to Brave’s blog post, all data associated with the alias emails is encrypted at rest, meaning it’s cryptographically scrambled up for the little time it remains on the company’s servers.

“Brave doesn’t read the contents of emails sent to an alias,” the post reads. “We only process emails to perform standard spam and virus filtering (we need to do this to maintain our status as a reputable email provider). Once an email is delivered, it is deleted from our servers within seconds.”

Brave also promises that any notes you might add to your email aliases are stored locally on your computer, and not on Brave servers. If you use Brave’s online syncing service, the company promises those notes “will be encrypted end-to-end between devices on the same sync chain.”

The new feature is available for free, but you’re currently limited to five aliases. For most people, this will be more than enough to prevent dropping your main email address anywhere on the web — but Brave plans to add more email alias features to its Premium plan in the future.

Representatives for Brave and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tyler is a writer for CNET covering laptops and video games. He’s previously covered mobile devices, home energy products and broadband. He came to CNET straight out of college, where he graduated from Seton Hall with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. When Tyler’s not asking questions or doing research for his next assignment, you can find him in his home state of New Jersey, kicking back with a bagel and watching an action flick or playing a new video game.

You can reach him at tgraham@cnet.com.

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