A new Gmail privacy and security update is set to change the way users use their email.
We’ve all been there before – you’re signing up to a public wifi network, an email newsletter or filling out an online form and you’re asked to enter your email address. Soon after, you begin receiving annoying (and often dangerous) spam emails in your inbox.
To alleviate this, it appears that Google has followed in the footsteps of Apple, offering users the opportunity to generate random ghost email addresses that forward to your existing account. With the feature, users won’t have to enter their actual email address to such forms, so spam emails will not clog their inboxes.
The update mirrors a feature by Apple, called Hide My Email, which enables users to keep their email addresses private from information brokers. Information brokers are the people who obtain and sell email addresses and phone numbers, which leads to spam emails and calls.
Apple users can also send messages directly from these ghost email addresses when they’re using Safari and Mail apps, and create a new ghost email address whenever they need to fill out an online form.
However, Gmail users may need to wait a little longer for the feature to be available on Google Chrome, although Google has said that “we could imagine that something like this might be pretty useful in Chrome”.
Currently, the feature is available in the new version of Google Play Services, so only Android mobile users will benefit from it. There has been no comment from Google as to whether this feature will make its way to Gmail’s desktop version.
As Forbes reports, there are two main pros of the update: users will know straight away where the scam and spam emails are coming from and can easily remove them, and it prevents these emails – and the people who send them – from accessing your personal emails.
Email and phone scams are becoming increasingly common and more convincing, so it’s thought that users will welcome these updates. According to research by Citizens Advice released last month, around 9 million people in the UK were caught out by financial scams in the last year, which is around one in five people.
In September, the Financial Ombudsman Service – which resolves disputes between consumers and firms – said that scam and fraud complaints have hit their highest level since tracking began in 2018.
