Nifty Trick with GMail

[pjgh]

Got a GMail account? Try this ...

Next time you sign up to something, say, a forum or a mailing list where you use your GMail account, use the + sign and add a descriptor for the service.

Eh? So, if your GMail address is user123@gmail.com then sign up as user123+spuriousmailinglist@gmail.com

Really? Yep! That's it! It will still come to your user123@gmail.com address and be there in your inbox. But, if you start getting junk to that address then you know exactly who sold your data.

 

[exists]

NB this is relatively common with other email providers as well (the couple of small ones I use do have this, and it seems that microsoft now supports this as well), so even if your provider is not google, chances are the same thing will work.
You can (usually) also set up sorting rules based on these "tags", e.g. deliver them straight into a different folder than inbox, for example trash.

 

[pjgh]

Microsoft, too? Nice! Thanks for that.

Apple (so long as you're on iOS/macOS and/or Safari) has full email address obfuscation, but it's not as neatly cross-platform.

 

[hotmetal]

The apple thing, is that only if you are using the icloud apple id email address? Or does it work if you use the Mac Mail client with 3rd party POP webmail accounts?

 

[pjgh]

The apple thing, is that only if you are using the icloud apple id email address? Or does it work if you use the Mac Mail client with 3rd party POP webmail accounts?

No, it's an on the fly email alias for your iCloud account.

Use Hide My Email in Mail on iPhone

In Mail on iPhone, Hide My Email allows you to create unique, random email addresses to keep your real email address private.

support.apple.com

 

[exists]

The apple thing, is that only if you are using the icloud apple id email address? Or does it work if you use the Mac Mail client with 3rd party POP webmail accounts?

It will depend on whether the "3rd party webmail accounts" support it or not.

 

[slapo]

Really? Yep! That's it! It will still come to your user123@gmail.com address and be there in your inbox. But, if you start getting junk to that address then you know exactly who sold your data.

I suspect that for a lot of smaller companies, it's more likely a data security issue than deliberate malice in the form of intentional data sales.

I've mostly been using aliases when testing software I work on, quite nifty for that purpose, too.

 

[havings]

This trick is well worth employing. I've recently received a phishing email to an email address which I used solely for a company related to financial tools. The email was trying to scam me in a way which would've cost me dearly, had I fallen for it. Now I can confront the original company about this breach, discard all further emails to this address and create a new address.

 

[Doodling Art]

if you start getting junk to that address then you know exactly who sold your data.

Erm, I don't get it?