Brave adds email aliases to its browser

Click an email field on a website in Brave and a small choice now appears: use an alias instead of your personal address. The browser has added email aliases, with a right-click option available when the pop-up does not show. The alias is entered into the form, while incoming messages are forwarded to the user's primary email account.

Getting started requires a Brave account and a real email address. The payoff is that websites receive the alias rather than the primary address. Brave says email addresses are used as personal identifiers for advertising, and that ad-tech companies such as Meta can match an address given to a retailer with one already associated with the user.

The protection also covers a familiar failure point: a hacked website. If the address shared there is the alias, the attacker does not directly obtain the user's primary email address. Brave says it does not read messages sent to aliases; it processes them only for spam and virus filtering, forwards them, then deletes them from its servers. Account data is encrypted at rest, while notes saved with aliases stay on the device unless syncing is enabled; synced notes use end-to-end encryption.

For users, the immediate change is five free aliases to separate sign-ups from a main inbox without creating separate mail accounts. That can reduce the exposure of a primary address across retailers and other online services.

The feature is new, and Brave warns that some forwarded messages may initially land in spam while it builds its reputation as a mail provider. More aliases are planned for Premium users, but no number or timing has been given.