You Need An Email Aliasing Service
I've been using SimpleLogin for two years now, but there's also addy.io. You probably don't know what email aliasing is, because otherwise you'd already be using it. So let me explain.
An email aliasing service is kind of like a PO box, in that it sits between you and the people or companies that you communicate with. Instead of giving out your real address, you give out the alias. The stranger sends an email and it arrives with the aliasing service. Unlike a PO box, you don't have to manually pick up your mail, but instead get it delivered to your real email address.
Multiple Aliases
Okay, right now it just sounds like an extra unnecessary step in the middle, right? Well, here comes the kicker: The aliasing service allows you to quickly and easily create new aliases.
Let's say your real email is real@example.com. You want to sign up with some online service and do so by generating the alias service1@alias.com. Then you sign up with a different service and generate the alias service2@alias.com to use there. When company one sends you email to service1@alias.com it is being forwarded into your inbox at real@example.com. And company two sends mails to service2@alias.com, which end up in the same spot.
The immediate win here is some anonymity. Most people have some identifying information in their email address, like their name. The aliases contain no information about you, except that you are using an aliasing service. Additionally, these two companies won't be able to figure out that these different emails refer to the same person.
Retiring Aliases
That's a small gain already, but there's more. The aliasing service also allows you to easily switch off an alias temporarily, or delete it permanently. Maybe you decide to cancel your account with company one. After doing so, you can also delete the service1@alias.com alias and won't receive any annoying "We're sad to see you go" emails.
Maybe company two gets hacked and all users' email addresses are leaked. When you start receiving spam on service2@alias.com you can simply change your email with that service to a new alias and switch off the old one.
Transparent Sources
Another benefit is even less obvious at first glance. The emails you receive in your inbox (real@example.com) will show the alias they were addressed to. This means it becomes much easier to spot phishing.
You might get an email that claims to be from your bank. But then you see that it was sent to service2@alias.com, rather than bank@alias.com. It's pretty obvious that somebody found that first alias and is trying to phish you.
I get a decent amount of spam and scams sent to the email I publish at the bottom of every post here, blog@optional.page. But I can safely ignore anything that claims to be a company or service I should be paying for.
Some Thorns
Email Aliasing is not all roses, though. First, it requires you to pay a bit more attention when sending emails. You can't just send an email to someone@example.com. This would skip the aliasing service and expose your real email address (which we don't want!).
Instead, you want to send your email to the reverse alias with your aliasing service. Basically something like outgoing_someone_at_example_com@alias.com. This will arrive at the server of your aliasing service which will then forward it to your actual receiver using the correct alias as the sender.
Sending an email to a fresh receiver is annoying, because you have to go to your aliasing service and tell them to create this reverse alias, and then use what they generate. Replying, on the other hand, is a bit simpler. The aliasing service is already rewriting the sender and receiver fields in such a way that simply hitting Reply works.
But there's a different thing that could trip you up with replies. Typically, a reply quotes the previous emails. In that quote, your email tool could be exposing your reverse alias by including it like so: > on [date] outgoing_someone_at_example_com@alias.com wrote: …
All email services should have an option to customize or remove this text, though.
Another tiny complaint is that the aliases don't look pretty. Because all users of an aliasing service sit on the same domain1, they all include some random letters or words, e.g. [custom_text].r0gq5@simplelogin.com. That's no problem for use online, but when you have to give these aliases out on the phone or in person, it can be a bit annoying.
Lastly, you won't be able to use these aliases everywhere. Mind you, this is not a problem with the aliasing services themselves. It's just that some companies won't accept emails from aliasing sites2. That's mostly because they confuse them with ephemeral "trash mails" that are meant to be used once just to get over the email requirement. As we've seen, this is actually not really what an alias is for. But tell that to some company that wants to make money by selling off your email address!
Conclusion
An email aliasing service like SimpleLogin or addy.io will make sending emails slightly more annoying. But their apps and browser extensions do a good job of mitigating this, and especially help out when you need to enter an email address online. You gain a decent boost in privacy and security, and a huge amount of control over how different companies, services, and people are able to contact you.
Thoughts? Reach out via Mastodon @Optional@dice.camp, message me via SimpleX, or shoot me an email.