4 ms·

Show HN: Why share your email address when you can hide it?

13 points by CryDeTaan 5y ago

CryDeTaan 5y ago
Full disclosure, I did a Show HN some time ago(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23131035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23131035) It worked, some of my friends were using it, but I never really improved on it although it was always in the back of my mind to do so at some point. So December 2020 seemed like a good time to do this. I completely rebuilt it, but again, did not really expect that there will come much of it, it is really just for myself. It seemed that the problem I was solving was really just a problem that I had. But then Apple announced their Hide My Email (albeit just on Apple devices) service at WWDC 21. I was like: "Hey, if Apple thinks there is something here, maybe other people would start thinking about it too." I want to continue building on this; I've had some ideas (browser extensions, Mobile, business plan, etc. etc.) that I want to implement sooner rather than later. There is a small fee for using the service and I believe that there may now be some people, non-Apple or otherwise users, who would start to see the value of this and be willing to pay for this service. I have not tried Apple's Hide My Email, but I think what makes Mailphantom different is that: 1. You can reply to an email; and 2. You can also add your own custom domain which only you will have access to
- hathym 5y ago
  congrats on your lanch? do you mind me asking how much is your MRR?
  - CryDeTaan 5y ago
    I never intended to make profit from this. But the fact that Apple thinks email privacy is important, made me think there may be something here. I am sure this does not answer your question, but hope that helps with some context.
chmaynard 5y ago
Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. This appears to be a commercial site that requires an account and payment up front. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
- CryDeTaan 5y ago
  This is something I made and can be played with :)
- diogenesjunior 5y ago
  I am pretty sure OP made this and other people are able to play with it.
- Macha 5y ago
  Dropbox is one of the oldest and most known Show HNs, that was a commercial site that required account creation up front
fhor 5y ago
Why would I use this over Firefox Relay? (free)
- CryDeTaan 5y ago
  Firefox relay cannot reply and you only get a hand full of email addresses. But probably enough for most people :)
user3939382 5y ago
I hide my email address by using Fastmail which supports wildcard users e.g. *@example.com so I can effortlessly assign a unique email address to anyone who asks for one. FYI, after years of running this experiment I’ve found that vendors don’t tend to share their email address lists. One of the only exceptions that comes to mind is someone scraping my LinkedIn email for e-commerce marketing.
- mattowen_uk 5y ago
  I've done exactly they same for many years via email aliases in MS Exchange. I too discovered that the only real sharing/leaking of email addresses was my paypal and ebay ones, and a legacy one that I used to use on USEnet back when we all didn't know better. My take-away was: always proxy ebay/paypal accounts behind another mail provider, and be ready to change those emails when they get compromised.
- CryDeTaan 5y ago
  > I hide my email address by using Fastmail which supports wildcard user Yes this service is not a new thing, and people come up with different ways to solve this problem. > FYI, after years of running this experiment I’ve found that vendors don’t tend to share their email address lists. I pretty much agree with you. But it happens, and I do feel better knowing even if they do, I needn't worry :)
- Macha 5y ago
  I've gotten a fair few emails to my address used for git commits also. Doubt each recruiter is compiling it manually, but someone must have built a script that cloned git repos and inspected the data, as I don't think GitHub shows it in the UI
  - DicIfTEx 5y ago
    > I don't think GitHub shows it in the UI Add `.patch` to the end of the URL when viewing a commit to view the full commit, including user information. E.g., ‘https://github.com/<repo>/commit/<hash>.patch’ https://github.com/<repo>/commit/<hash>.patch’.
onion2k 5y ago
Are you keeping a copy of everyone's emails so you can mine them and sell the data? You'd make a fortune. That stuff is worth a lot. Also, can you prove that's not happening?
- CryDeTaan 5y ago
  No I do not keep any emails, and a valid concern for sure. I mean I do not have an easy way to show anyone. But I have thought about how to deal with such a request, and my thinking was to have a video call with someone and show. For the moment that is how I would solve that. Not ideal but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - enriquto 5y ago
    The only way to relieve yourself of the burden of proof is by never having the actual emails of anybody. Would it be possible to offer your service under that constraint? That would be extremely cool!
lorlou 5y ago
1 Register a new Gmail account 2 Redirect all incoming mail from that account to your already existing, personal account 3 Set a filter so all redirected mail gets a label and is archived automatically 4 Only look at that label when you need to You're welcome, guys!
Saris 5y ago
I'd love to see a simple browser addon that takes care of generating an email for new sites, because there are several similar services out there and I think on all of them you have to manually go generate an email. Kind of a silly preference maybe because it's still easy to do manually, but it would make the paid service more attractive I think.
- instalogin 5y ago
  I wanted something similar. https://instalogin.co https://instalogin.co (shameless plug), any questions, let me know.
- CryDeTaan 5y ago
  No not at all silly, I want to get to this as well.
- CookiesOnMyDesk 5y ago
  Blur by Abine. Also masks your phone numbers, your credit cards and is a password manager on top of that. https://www.abine.com/ https://www.abine.com/
  - CryDeTaan 5y ago
    I used abine and then created my own, because I wanted it simple, and their offering got a bit bloated with those other services.
    - CookiesOnMyDesk 5y ago
      Yes, they do employ a quite holistic view on online privacy; requiring you to put a lot of trust in them. I did not intend to diminish the value of your service.
- bibaheu 5y ago
  Firefox Relay is what you are looking for.
eps 5y ago
Keep in mind that this sort of email "cloaking" will cause false positives in fraud prevention systems. Especially if coupled with using a VPN or Tor.
chrisma0 5y ago
If I'm seeing this correctly, the free https://mailhide.io/ https://mailhide.io/ seems very similar
MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
This reminds me of anonaddy.com. It's free for some basic features which I've used and I'd highly suggest it. You can use fake emails to avoid spam and turn them on, off, or eliminate them entirely. Great for a particular watch store that LOVES to sell your data.

13 points by CryDeTaan 5y ago

Full disclosure, I did a Show HN some time ago(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23131035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23131035) It worked, some of my friends were using it, but I never really improved on it although it was always in the back of my mind to do so at some point. So December 2020 seemed like a good time to do this. I completely rebuilt it, but again, did not really expect that there will come much of it, it is really just for myself. It seemed that the problem I was solving was really just a problem that I had. But then Apple announced their Hide My Email (albeit just on Apple devices) service at WWDC 21. I was like: "Hey, if Apple thinks there is something here, maybe other people would start thinking about it too." I want to continue building on this; I've had some ideas (browser extensions, Mobile, business plan, etc. etc.) that I want to implement sooner rather than later. There is a small fee for using the service and I believe that there may now be some people, non-Apple or otherwise users, who would start to see the value of this and be willing to pay for this service. I have not tried Apple's Hide My Email, but I think what makes Mailphantom different is that: 1. You can reply to an email; and 2. You can also add your own custom domain which only you will have access to

hathym 5y ago
congrats on your lanch? do you mind me asking how much is your MRR?
- CryDeTaan 5y ago
  I never intended to make profit from this. But the fact that Apple thinks email privacy is important, made me think there may be something here. I am sure this does not answer your question, but hope that helps with some context.

chmaynard 5y ago

Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. This appears to be a commercial site that requires an account and payment up front. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

CryDeTaan 5y ago
This is something I made and can be played with :)
diogenesjunior 5y ago
I am pretty sure OP made this and other people are able to play with it.
Macha 5y ago
Dropbox is one of the oldest and most known Show HNs, that was a commercial site that required account creation up front

fhor 5y ago

Why would I use this over Firefox Relay? (free)

CryDeTaan 5y ago
Firefox relay cannot reply and you only get a hand full of email addresses. But probably enough for most people :)

user3939382 5y ago

I hide my email address by using Fastmail which supports wildcard users e.g. *@example.com so I can effortlessly assign a unique email address to anyone who asks for one. FYI, after years of running this experiment I’ve found that vendors don’t tend to share their email address lists. One of the only exceptions that comes to mind is someone scraping my LinkedIn email for e-commerce marketing.

mattowen_uk 5y ago
I've done exactly they same for many years via email aliases in MS Exchange. I too discovered that the only real sharing/leaking of email addresses was my paypal and ebay ones, and a legacy one that I used to use on USEnet back when we all didn't know better. My take-away was: always proxy ebay/paypal accounts behind another mail provider, and be ready to change those emails when they get compromised.
CryDeTaan 5y ago
> I hide my email address by using Fastmail which supports wildcard user Yes this service is not a new thing, and people come up with different ways to solve this problem. > FYI, after years of running this experiment I’ve found that vendors don’t tend to share their email address lists. I pretty much agree with you. But it happens, and I do feel better knowing even if they do, I needn't worry :)
Macha 5y ago
I've gotten a fair few emails to my address used for git commits also. Doubt each recruiter is compiling it manually, but someone must have built a script that cloned git repos and inspected the data, as I don't think GitHub shows it in the UI
- DicIfTEx 5y ago
  > I don't think GitHub shows it in the UI Add `.patch` to the end of the URL when viewing a commit to view the full commit, including user information. E.g., ‘https://github.com/<repo>/commit/<hash>.patch’ https://github.com/<repo>/commit/<hash>.patch’.

onion2k 5y ago

Are you keeping a copy of everyone's emails so you can mine them and sell the data? You'd make a fortune. That stuff is worth a lot. Also, can you prove that's not happening?

CryDeTaan 5y ago
No I do not keep any emails, and a valid concern for sure. I mean I do not have an easy way to show anyone. But I have thought about how to deal with such a request, and my thinking was to have a video call with someone and show. For the moment that is how I would solve that. Not ideal but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- enriquto 5y ago
  The only way to relieve yourself of the burden of proof is by never having the actual emails of anybody. Would it be possible to offer your service under that constraint? That would be extremely cool!

lorlou 5y ago

1 Register a new Gmail account 2 Redirect all incoming mail from that account to your already existing, personal account 3 Set a filter so all redirected mail gets a label and is archived automatically 4 Only look at that label when you need to You're welcome, guys!

Saris 5y ago

I'd love to see a simple browser addon that takes care of generating an email for new sites, because there are several similar services out there and I think on all of them you have to manually go generate an email. Kind of a silly preference maybe because it's still easy to do manually, but it would make the paid service more attractive I think.

instalogin 5y ago
I wanted something similar. https://instalogin.co https://instalogin.co (shameless plug), any questions, let me know.
CryDeTaan 5y ago
No not at all silly, I want to get to this as well.
CookiesOnMyDesk 5y ago
Blur by Abine. Also masks your phone numbers, your credit cards and is a password manager on top of that. https://www.abine.com/ https://www.abine.com/
- CryDeTaan 5y ago
  I used abine and then created my own, because I wanted it simple, and their offering got a bit bloated with those other services.
  - CookiesOnMyDesk 5y ago
    Yes, they do employ a quite holistic view on online privacy; requiring you to put a lot of trust in them. I did not intend to diminish the value of your service.
bibaheu 5y ago
Firefox Relay is what you are looking for.

eps 5y ago

Keep in mind that this sort of email "cloaking" will cause false positives in fraud prevention systems. Especially if coupled with using a VPN or Tor.

chrisma0 5y ago

If I'm seeing this correctly, the free https://mailhide.io/ https://mailhide.io/ seems very similar

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago

This reminds me of anonaddy.com. It's free for some basic features which I've used and I'd highly suggest it. You can use fake emails to avoid spam and turn them on, off, or eliminate them entirely. Great for a particular watch store that LOVES to sell your data.