Around 3.1 million emails are sent every , and are spam. According to Dataport, this translates into an average daily volume of globally. second 85% of them 122.33 billion spam messages Marketers have been arguing about decreases in open rates since 2015, and that’s because people are simply of scanning through hundreds of useless content when opening their email inbox. tired Our main mailbox nowadays looks like a nightmare turned reality. Currently, I have more than 50.000 unread emails in my personal mailbox and over in all my accounts combined. 300.000 unread emails Why this matters When I talk to people about this, they don’t seem to care that much. They see email as and move on with their lives. a dead communication channel Although this is entirely understandable, I’d like to argue . Emails are still the #1 sales machine for all digital marketing enterprises, which means email traffic is still the best quality traffic you can get (probably next to Google in some instances). we never really got over email Also, internet sensations that were once dead, like , are gathering billions of views. newsletters resurfacing after the 2020 wave of nonsensical content online, We like to think of the Internet as this practical, everchanging machine. However, , and as such, it evolves over time. the Internet is very much a human creation Evolution in the digital space doesn’t always erase old progress. Sometimes, it enhances what was already there. WhatsApp didn’t invent anything new. Neither did Telegram, Signal, or Facebook Messenger. However, they capitalized on what Instant Messaging meant and created something beautiful out of it that changed our lives forever. Emails have been around since the beginning of everything. Before, “social network” was even a word. Yet, we still use them. Daily. Why? Because we grew accustomed to a private space where we decide what and when to see. No ads, . just our own ideas and private communication If we don't act now to safeguard our privacy, we could all become victims of identity theft. -Bill Nelson The Doom of Digital Enthusiasts If you’re like me, you created your email more than 10 years ago. And now, you’re doomed. You can have as many spam filters as you want, but and a consent-driven exchange of messages after so much time. there’s no going back to a clean inbox My personal email has been (you can check if yours is secure at ), and I receive an absurd amount of emails per day from . breached an indefinite number of times HaveIBeenPwned people I don’t remember, Companies I hate, and Products I no longer use Going through each one of them and clicking “unsubscribe” to follow a three-step unsubscribe process would take me days - if not weeks. This is the main reason Gmail invented the “Important” tag, to . filter through our own junk A couple of years ago, the market of tech enthusiasts started shifting towards a more practical, even pragmatic, use of emails. And it’s thanks to . aliases How Email Aliases Can Help Declutter Your Inbox I’m confident everyone here knows what an alias is, but just in case: an email alias is a . It takes what it’s sent to it and forwards it to your real mailbox. forwarding address This concept can be used to: your real email address mask (for privacy-enthusiasts) your business email substitute (if you can send emails from the alias) add extra layers of to otherwise insecure email clients security (such as PGP on top of Gmail) Email aliasing solutions nowadays are what VPNs and Password Managers were 5-6 years ago. It’s something reserved for the small niche of techies and hasn’t breached the consumer market yet. However, email aliases can be incredibly useful for the as well. average consumer For us techies, email aliases are useful to ditch GSuite and save money, add PGP to our content sent via the alias, and so much more, but to a normal internet user, aliases can help reduce the clutter in their inbox substantially. Aliasing provides you with a “kill-switch.” The Kill-Switch: Stop the “Unsubscribe” Nightmare Consent is not fun if it’s hard to take back. Newsletter and web services make it a pain to unsubscribe so that they can keep your precious email in their database. , as that’s used across thousands of websites and apps. You don’t really have control of your main mailbox With aliases, you can take back control. If you use a different email alias for each service you subscribe to, you will always have the ability to disable the alias and puff - they can’t contact you anymore. That newsletter you’re not interested in anymore? with one click in your email aliasing solution. Click - gone That service you stopped using in 2018? . Click - gone One of your aliases was in a data breach? . Click - gone On a scale, imagine having 2000 aliases and being able to filter through them, bulk delete them, bulk inactivate/activate, and send emails from them. These aliases would also be , meaning you can use them on top of any email solution. platform-agnostic Would this give you part of your freedom back? I bet it would. I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building. -Edward Snowden How to Create Your Privacy-Preserving Email Aliases There are several tools on the market to create email aliases. It’s my responsibility to disclose I am indeed associated with one of them as a marketer, but I won’t make this biased at all. I’m not here to tell you which solution is the best one. Pick one, and use it. You’ll see long-term benefits, trust me. Create Email Aliases Tools to (Open-Source) AnonAddy SimpleLogin Both tools are completely open-source and can be . They allow you to as well as receive them, and they let you insert a PGP key to encrypt your content. self-hosted on your server send emails from your alias The main difference between the two is the pricing model, but they’re both affordable. I’m personally associated with SimpleLogin, and if you’re curious about how to send an email from your alias, you can . watch our tutorial here If you don’t need to send emails, is open-source as well 😊 Firefox Relay Tools to Create Email Aliases (Non-Open-Source) BurnerMail AppleMail 33Mail Abine Crumbs Among all of these, the most popular one is (Apple Hide My Email) which only works on Apple devices. platform-specific However, BurnerMail, 33Mail, Abine, and Crumbs all allow creating forwarding addresses. In most cases, their solution focuses on fighting spam and doesn’t allow to send emails from the alias or add PGP. These solutions are not open-source and follow a SaaS model only, which can be a pro or a con based on your personal technical abilities and interest in scanning the code behind the apps you use. Conclusion I hope this article was helpful and gave you great insights into how to start decluttering your mailbox, use aliases to mask your real email, and protect yourself against spam and irrelevant content. If you’re curious about more content on the topic of emails, here are some great articles from other contributors at Hackernoon: - by How Email Became the Weakest Link in Cybersecurity Brian Wallace - by Despite the overload, emails are here to stay Gwapit - by Introduction to Email Threats & Defense John Gruber - by A few thoughts on Email Freddy

Too Long; Didn't Read

Making security fun one episode at a time

What is an Email Alias and Why You Should Stop Using Your Real Email Address

Too Long; Didn't Read

Giorgio Barillà

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

What is an Email Alias and Why You Should Stop Using Your Real Email Address

Too Long; Didn't Read

Giorgio Barillà

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

RELATED STORIES