Firefox Private Relay: Generate unique, random, anonymous email addresses

It looks like this is currently in a private alpha, but the code is all open source. [1]

When Apple introduced something similar, I really wished that someone else would provide something similar. I'm glad to see Mozilla is gearing up to offer this. My main worry, though, is longevity. What happens when you sign up using a generated email address, and then Mozilla decides to shutter the service? You'd likely lose access to that email, and wouldn't be able to log into your accounts anymore. Thankfully Mozilla respects users enough that they'd probably offer ample notice so that you could change your email address.

[1] https://github.com/mozilla/fx-private-relay

SimpleLogin [1] already does that and their aliases are more powerful. It's also open-source [2], can be self-hosted, and covers almost all platforms.

The Firefox relay seems to need SocketLabs [3], a paying and closed-source service. Haven't got my invite code yet but I would not bet on this Firefox service.

[1] https://simplelogin.io

[2] https://github.com/simple-login/app

[3] https://www.socketlabs.com/

It would still be a privacy issue for me. Mozilla would still have my real address tied to my account, and there's no mention of encryption of email content or the anonymous generated email addresses.

Still...It's a great step in the right direction!

Do we know why the Firefox addon? I understand how this can work as a relay service (kind of how Craigslist generates a unique email for each thread), but I don't see the point of the addon.