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Totally agree with unique at own domain isn't actually privacy. It wouldn't take much of a paper trail to work out the details. I continue to use it everywhere
by glenngillen 1mo ago
Totally agree with unique at own domain isn't actually privacy. It wouldn't take much of a paper trail to work out the details.
I continue to use it everywhere for a few reasons:
- if someone emails me acting all friendly like we've had some previous relationship but it's sent to linked@mydomain or github@mydomain I know they've just scraped my contact details and it's spam
- similarly, if a vendor leaks or sells my data and I start receiving marketing from somewhere I don't expect it's easier to trace the source of the leak (and in some cases just blackhole that entire email address)
- I already use a password manager and have different passwords on every site, but having a different email address too raises the barrier further for someone trying to script an automated attack based off some other pwned data set.
- kqp 1mo agoI agree with all of this. I’d add that it’s useful for sorting and searching. Things like keyword matching, from address, and from domain aren’t as consistent as you’d hope, but companies do need to actually email the address they were given, so you can use it to reliably identify emails from them.
- jiveturkey 1mo agoBut all 3 of those use cases, plus privacy, can be addressed with word.salad@bigdomain.com. So you may as well get the privacy bit in there.
- r4ndomname 1mo agoTrue, but it requires setting up a mailbox at bigdomain.com for every use case. With your own domain you can just setup a catchall mainbox like catchemall@yourdomain.com and don’t even need to remember any mailbox@bigdomain.com name. Just use github@ and it will be automatically be catched by your catchall.
- setopt 1mo agoSo any mail to anyrandomstring@yourdomain.com is actually received? Sounds like something that works great when only you do it, but might quickly be abused if it catches on?
- dcminter 1mo agoIf you do this you immediately get thousands of emails a day from bots trying common first names etc. Much better to maintain an explicit list of names you're currently allowing.
- fingerlocks 1mo agoGoing back on topic, Apple offers mail hosting for custom domain, along with the optional “one mailbox, infinite aliases” feature we’re discussing right now. I’ve been using it for a while now and no bot spam. No spam at all actually.
- latexr 1mo ago> along with the optional “one mailbox, infinite aliases” feature we’re discussing right now. They’re not exactly the same thing. Aliases are alternate addresses (under one domain) you set up yourself, while a catch-all just accepts any address in the domain as valid. While iCloud Mail does allow catch-all¹, aliases are capped at a maximum of three². ¹ https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/icloud/mm9e3ee0680f/icloud https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/icloud/mm9e3ee0680f/ic... ² https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/icloud/mm074af79454/icloud https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/icloud/mm074af79454/ic...
- fingerlocks 1mo agoHa, I didn’t realize “catch-all” was a technical term of art. Thanks for clarifying!
- ahmedfromtunis 1mo ago[flagged]
- cube00 1mo ago> - similarly, if a vendor leaks or sells my data and I start receiving marketing from somewhere I don't expect it's easier to trace the source of the leak (and in some cases just blackhole that entire email address) This is exactly why I do it, it's eye opening to see exactly which companies leaked your address. As a result of being able to blackhole the leaked addresses I no longer get any spam, the Dvorak dream. I actually caught a company outright selling my address to AWS of all places, I didn't even know Amazon purchased mailing lists. AWS were crafty because they didn't directly sell a service, they only offered "resources" for "business leaders" because they knew nothing about what I might need. Explore the AWS [REDACTED] where business leaders can access eBooks, guides, and customer stories to find practical advice on building or improving upon a data strategy. Learn how you can leverage data as a strategic asset, make better decisions with insights from data, and innovate faster.
- serbuvlad 1mo agoI find this very interesting in 2026. I use my gmail address for everything and I don't really get spam (except from services I've subscribed to legitimately but haven't bothered to configure to not send promotional mail). I never really get promotional mail from 3rd parties at all. Is this just gmail filters being very good?