1Password and Fastmail have announced a new service designed to offer users a way to create email aliases and protect their real email addresses. 

The "Masked Email" service will allow 1Password users to create and manage secure, unique email aliases directly within the 1Password platform. The feature is designed to help users hide their email addresses from certain apps or services they need to use. 

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Fastmail COO Helen Horstmann-Allen said adding the email alias feature to 1Password lets customers protect their email identity in the same way they protect their passwords. 

"Together, we built a feature I'm really proud of, with a partner who shares our values for both customer privacy and open standards," Horstmann-Allen said. 

By allowing users to generate a unique email address, 1Password customers can protect themselves from the kind of phishing emails that have become all too common. A recent report from Deloitte noted that 91% of all cyberattacks start with a phishing email. 

Andrew Beyer, browser experience lead at 1Password, said people's email addresses are entry points to their digital lives, making it essential that they remain in control of how they are used and dispersed. 

"Working with Fastmail, we've developed a way to make creating and filling a unique email address through 1Password as easy as generating passwords are today," Beyer said. 

Fastmail CEO Bron Gondwana noted that email addresses are effectively a person's online identity, and if their information is compromised in a data breach, having a randomly generated email address adds a second line of defense "because it can't be associated with your primary email address, and therefore, your identity."

The companies said the feature is ideal for when someone needs to register for a free Wi-Fi network or sign up for an email newsletter. 

The email addresses never expire unless you manually remove them, and users can manage their aliases from the Fastmail platform. Users can also pause receiving mail to their email aliases.

Troy Hunt, strategic advisor at 1Password and founder of Have I Been Pwned, said it is now known empirically that data breaches happen many times every single day, and the full extent of the problem is larger than anyone can quantify.

"My service is now tracking 5 billion email addresses, with each one appearing in an average of 2 data breaches. It's more important than ever that we protect our privacy, and protecting the primary key to our digital lives -- our email address -- will have a really positive impact," Hunt said. 

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