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Masked Emails#

Masked email services allow you to create unique, random email addresses that forward to your real email address. They do not contain any personal information, so you can remain anonymous when signing up for services. The one I recommend is Fastmail.

Masked Email Service Diagram
Masked Email Service Diagram

Why Use Masked Emails?#

There is a high chance that your email address will fall into the hands of someone you do not want to have it:

  1. Data breaches are extremely common. If a service you signed up for gets hacked, your email address is now in the hands of hackers and can be used multiple ways to target you. This is similar to the problems with password reuse, but with email addresses.
  2. Companies sometimes sell your email address to third parties, which can lead to spam. Some states have laws against this, but it still happens.
  3. You or a service you use may inadvertently publish your email address online, which can easily be scraped by spammers.

If you use a masked email, you can easily switch to a new masked email whenever you start getting spam at a compromised one. This can help protect your real email address from falling into the wrong hands.

When to Use Masked Emails#

The best practice would be to use a unique masked email for every login you create. This way, there is no overlap between services, but this is probably overkill for most people. A good rule of thumb is to use a masked email for untrusted services, like online shopping, or newsletters. For trusted services, like your bank, you can use your real email address.

How to Use Masked Emails#

There are a few services that offer masked email functionality. The one I recommend is Fastmail, but this is a complete email service, not just a masked email service. There are other services that offer just masked email functionality, like SimpleLogin and Addy.

It is best to keep track of the masked emails you create in a password manager. Some password managers, like Bitwarden, have built-in support for masked emails to make it more convenient to create them. You can see how easy it is with this Fastmail <-> Bitwarden integration guide.