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> You always get a unique email address that I can cancel or sort, no matter who you are. Fastmail thankfully makes this very easy Is that possible with Fastma

> You always get a unique email address that I can cancel or sort, no matter who you are. Fastmail thankfully makes this very easy Is that possible with Fastmail without having your own domain? I've been looking for a mail provider where you can create unlimited mail addresses to prevent me from being tracked across services for some time now. The problem with using your own domain (slack@yourdomain.tld medium@yourdomain.tld etc) is that only laziness of not implementing automatic domain matching is keeping my identities separate. If anybody knows of a mail provider who provides that (even with random mailbox names like vtegbssfvi@mailprovider.tld) I would be grateful if you could let me know.

vinay427 7y ago
You can use Gmail with the plus '+' tags or extra dots '.' in the address. e.g. example+charity1@gmail.com, exam.ple@gmail.com, etc. I did this for years before switching to a custom domain and it worked very well for me.
- danShumway 7y ago
  The problem is that most spammers know how to strip the plus tags, or can strip the dots to associate you across multiple accounts. I think of throwaway addresses the same way as I think of a VPN. I shouldn't be the only person on the domain I'm using, and there shouldn't be any persistent information in the address. With Fastmail, the only information I have to give up is that it is a Fastmail account. I can have `<some_random_string>@fastmail.com`, which makes it much harder for an advertiser or spammer to link my identity from that email to another one.
danShumway 7y ago
Yes. Aliases are one of the best features Fastmail has, and they work exactly how you're describing -- you just pick a word and you have that email address. (`contact_walmart@fastmail.com`, or `specific_charity_receipt@fastmail.com`, or whatever) If you're done with an email address but you don't want to delete it, you can also disable aliases without giving them up, so email will bounce, but you still technically own it and nobody else will be able to register it. They're not literally unlimited, but the limit is high enough that in practice, you can have a separate email address for every service that you use. I do have my own domain, but I don't typically use it for most 3rd-party services. The reason I like aliases more is because if I use the gmail trick or my own domain, there's still a unique piece of information that's tied to my name. In other words, it's still identifying. Most spammers know to strip the pluses from gmail accounts, so you're not really doing anything at all by adding those. And even if a spammer can't guess your other email addresses, they still know who you are. I'm not particularly secretive about my identity online -- I use my real name as my handle. So it's not even always about blocking spam -- sometimes you want to use an email without giving a company a very obvious link to who you are.
- Perseids 7y ago
  Thank you!

vinay427 7y ago

You can use Gmail with the plus '+' tags or extra dots '.' in the address. e.g. example+charity1@gmail.com, exam.ple@gmail.com, etc. I did this for years before switching to a custom domain and it worked very well for me.

danShumway 7y ago
The problem is that most spammers know how to strip the plus tags, or can strip the dots to associate you across multiple accounts. I think of throwaway addresses the same way as I think of a VPN. I shouldn't be the only person on the domain I'm using, and there shouldn't be any persistent information in the address. With Fastmail, the only information I have to give up is that it is a Fastmail account. I can have `<some_random_string>@fastmail.com`, which makes it much harder for an advertiser or spammer to link my identity from that email to another one.

danShumway 7y ago

Yes. Aliases are one of the best features Fastmail has, and they work exactly how you're describing -- you just pick a word and you have that email address. (`contact_walmart@fastmail.com`, or `specific_charity_receipt@fastmail.com`, or whatever) If you're done with an email address but you don't want to delete it, you can also disable aliases without giving them up, so email will bounce, but you still technically own it and nobody else will be able to register it. They're not literally unlimited, but the limit is high enough that in practice, you can have a separate email address for every service that you use. I do have my own domain, but I don't typically use it for most 3rd-party services. The reason I like aliases more is because if I use the gmail trick or my own domain, there's still a unique piece of information that's tied to my name. In other words, it's still identifying. Most spammers know to strip the pluses from gmail accounts, so you're not really doing anything at all by adding those. And even if a spammer can't guess your other email addresses, they still know who you are. I'm not particularly secretive about my identity online -- I use my real name as my handle. So it's not even always about blocking spam -- sometimes you want to use an email without giving a company a very obvious link to who you are.

Perseids 7y ago
Thank you!