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I've started to give services domain-specific email addresses as a sort of reverse-tracking identifier. So I give google@mydomain.com and apple@mydomain.com and

I've started to give services domain-specific email addresses as a sort of reverse-tracking identifier. So I give google@mydomain.com and apple@mydomain.com and so on. I figure I'm using a password manager for all of my passwords anyway. It obviously won't work in all situations, but it might provide some leads.

freeAgent 3y ago
Unless mydomain[.]com is used by more people than just you and maybe your family, doesn’t the domain itself serve as a unique(ish) identifier? I think public aliasing services offer better anonymity, but they’re also blocked by some services.
- blep_ 3y ago
  For humans who are paying attention, sure. In practice, not really, because it's all done by scripts without an easy way to query "is this domain shared".
EvanAnderson 3y ago
I've done the same thing for years (yikes-- 20 as of last year-- I'm old!), albeit sometimes I use an opaque identifier for the username portion (because some sites treat addresses with their own domain name in then funnily and I've had humans question it). As a bonus I've identified and reported two previously unknown data breaches by reporting the date I started receiving spam to a one-off address.
hnbear 3y ago
I also bought myself a new domain for this. Previously I was using service@service.myname.com, and I realized that's leaking a bit too much info. So, I bought genericname.com and switched to using service@service.genericname.com Slightly less leakage, although I really doubt anyone is looking. I still have occasional issues with companies rejecting emails with their name in them, but that's easy to work around. It's great in stores when they ask you to sign up for something and you give them an email that's obviously their name. Raises some eyebrows but most people working the checkout really don't care. A few just comment that it's cool, most are skeptical. It's all hosted on fastmail and routes via wildcards to my central inbox anyway.

freeAgent 3y ago

Unless mydomain[.]com is used by more people than just you and maybe your family, doesn’t the domain itself serve as a unique(ish) identifier? I think public aliasing services offer better anonymity, but they’re also blocked by some services.

blep_ 3y ago
For humans who are paying attention, sure. In practice, not really, because it's all done by scripts without an easy way to query "is this domain shared".

EvanAnderson 3y ago

I've done the same thing for years (yikes-- 20 as of last year-- I'm old!), albeit sometimes I use an opaque identifier for the username portion (because some sites treat addresses with their own domain name in then funnily and I've had humans question it). As a bonus I've identified and reported two previously unknown data breaches by reporting the date I started receiving spam to a one-off address.

hnbear 3y ago

I also bought myself a new domain for this. Previously I was using service@service.myname.com, and I realized that's leaking a bit too much info. So, I bought genericname.com and switched to using service@service.genericname.com Slightly less leakage, although I really doubt anyone is looking. I still have occasional issues with companies rejecting emails with their name in them, but that's easy to work around. It's great in stores when they ask you to sign up for something and you give them an email that's obviously their name. Raises some eyebrows but most people working the checkout really don't care. A few just comment that it's cool, most are skeptical. It's all hosted on fastmail and routes via wildcards to my central inbox anyway.