Master The Art Of Anonymous Email Addresses
If you’re using email, you already know it’s a very convenient and easy way to communicate. Just write a message, click “Send” and the other side will get it almost immediately.
Even if they are on another continent.
Few online communication channels can do that, at least not for free or as fast as email.
But email has its downsides. One of the biggest, without a doubt, is how much it can reveal about you when you don’t want it.
If you’re a regular Gmail user and don’t care much about privacy, only convenience, then this article might not be interesting for you.
However, if for whatever reason, you need to be anonymous when sending and receiving emails, then keep reading.
You might get some good anonymous email address ideas.
Why Do You Need An Anonymous Email Account?
You might need an anonymous email address for a lot of reasons.
It could be because you want to prank a friend with a fake email address.
Or, more seriously, you might need to send an anonymous email to social services.
To report on corruption or fraud in your company.
To warn people about something your government doesn’t want them to know.
And the list goes on.
Whatever the reason(s), knowing how to create an anonymous email account is a good idea.
So let’s talk about how to do it.
How to Create An Anonymous Email Account Free?
First, yes it is possible to set up an anonymous email account with Gmail, Microsoft Outlook or Yahoo.
Problem is, it takes a lot of work and it’s 100% bullet-proof.
Let me explain.
For instance, it is possible to create an account on Gmail using a fake username.
Problem is, Google will ask you for a phone number. This is because it wants to send an SMS message and verify you’re human and not a bot.
There are two ways around this:
- Use a burner phone;
- Use an online SMS service like Receive SMS.
Problem is, even with these precaution measures, you still aren’t fully anonymous.
Gmail and your ISP will know where and who you are thanks to your IP address.
So now, you need a way to hide your IP address somehow.
One way to do it is to sign up for a VPN service.
How does a VPN help?
In short, a Virtual Private Network software will encrypt your data before it reaches the ISP or Google. That way, the data first goes through the VPN and from there to its destination, like a website
That website will see the traffic as if it is coming from the VPN server and not your location.
In other words, they will see the VPN’s IP and not yours.
However, you still aren’t out of hot water.
For one, the VPN might be keeping logs or payment records. If so, these can include identifying information.
Besides, you also need to consider under whose jurisdiction the VPN is established. They might still be obligated to provide information if the government asks for it.
So, there are a lot of “ifs” here.
Getting an Anonymous Email Without Registration
What if you need to send an anonymous email quickly and don’t want to register, or the recipient to get back to you?
There are a couple of options you can go with to send emails, without registration:
If, on the other hand, you need to receive emails, then these email services will be of great help:
You can use these if you need to receive email confirmation links, but don’t want to deal with newsletters.
Keep in mind that your ISP will still see the traffic to these sites based on your IP. So you need to make an extra step to hide your browsing and stay anonymous.
Anonymous Email Account Providers
Creating an anonymous email address with Gmail is not very user-friendly as you can see.
That’s because Gmail was not designed to provide privacy and anonymity. On the contrary, Google wants to use it to get as much data from you as possible.
A much better solution to your anonymity needs are the anonymous email account providers.
Fortunately, there is no lack of good email services. Some of the best anonymous email services include:
- CTemplar;
- ProtonMail;
- Tutanota;
- GuerillaMail;
- Hushmail;
- Secure Email.
These will all do the job very well, but, as our email comparison table shows, not all are equal.
For example, some email providers will record the user’s IP address, allowing the ISP to trace them. Again, you can use a VPN, but we already explained the risk of that.
Another problem that you might encounter is the jurisdiction the provider falls into.
For instance, if their servers are in the United States, or a country that has data-sharing laws with the US, your data will not be safe with them.
CTemplar has its servers in Iceland, which isn’t part of the 14-Eyes and legally protects whistleblowers.
That’s not all.
You also need to consider how they will encrypt your data. Accept nothing short of 2048-bit. Even that might not be enough soon as encryption-breaking algorithms are getting more and more powerful.
In time, they’ll be able to break this as well.
As you can see, choosing an anonymous email provider is an important decision. One that might stand between you and the wrong side discovering your real identity.
Bottom line, you need to carefully examine anonymous email account providers for the features they offer.
Here are CTemplar’s security features:
- Protection from Javascript;
- Instantly delete emails;
- Built-in kill switch;
- Anti-phishing protection;
- Brute force attack protection;
- Anonymous payment options (Monero, bitcoin…);
- Zero access to your password;
- 4096-bit encryption (using ProtonMail’s OpenPGPjs library);
- And more.
The more you think about it, the more you can see that having an anonymous email address is necessary if you want to maintain your privacy online.If you want to be sure your identity stays secret when sending emails, sign up for a CTemplar anonymous email account today.