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There's nothing worse than being inundated with spam emails, but the latest hidden Gmail update could help alleviate your stress with a feature users have been requesting for years now.
Spam can range from being plain annoying to dangerous, as hackers are even able to use Google Maps data to show you where you live in terrifying threats.
However, as spotted by Android Authority, an upcoming update to Gmail has borrowed one of Apple's most popular features, allowing users to keep their electronic letterbox a bit more private amid cybersecurity concerns.
Google is preparing to launch what they're calling 'Shielded Mail', allowing users to create unique one-time email addresses that route back to their mail inbox.
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This allows users to 'use' their email to sign up for websites, memberships, or forms without giving away their actual address.
The beauty of this feature is that you're able to directly disable these unique addresses at any time if you're finding the sender's emails to be too annoying, effectively cutting out any communications and erasing your digital footprint in their services.
This comes from concerns that your information - especially your email address - is sold or transferred beyond the original destination that you gave it out, opening you up to unwanted spam and potential tracking too.
Information sourced by Android Authority points to the feature being within the 'Autofill with Google' section, implying that you'll be able to easily create and input these 'false' addresses into any form without too much trouble.
If you're an Apple user then you might quickly realize this feature's similarity to 'Hide My Email', which offers largely the same function in keeping your email and internet information private.
While this feature has been a huge success for Apple users, it hasn't been without its own issues.
Comments on a post in the r/apple subreddit have expressed their frustrations with the service - or at least how companies have managed to get around the service:
"I am finding some sites are recognizing the emails in Hide My Email and just blocking them, giving me an 'enter a valid email address' error," says one user, although another claims that "blocking should be nearly impossible" with new formats set up by Apple.
Other commenters express frustration with other tricks, stating that 'Hide My Email' "is the very same reason companies are starting to use Apple Pay as a payment processing type. They know that you can't use Hide My Email when purchasing via Apple Pay - it's f****** annoying."
Whether Google's version suffers the same issues is still yet to be seen, but it's clear that some companies are determined to get your actual email by any means necessary.
