Considering that almost all online work requires you to sign up using an email address, it becomes a deceptively important piece of information. But how do you keep your email private while using it to communicate or sign up for services that you need to use?
There's a simple solution—you can use email aliases (or email cloaking services) to hide your email ID. So what exactly is an email alias? How can you hide your email address? And why would you want to?
What Is an Email Alias?
An email alias is an additional email address that forwards any messages to the same account inbox.
For instance, if you have an email account: . Your email alias can be or , which looks like a different account but points to the same inbox.
Some email providers give you the ability to create aliases for free. But that is usually limited to a few aliases. Hence, you might need to look for dedicated email alias services to get the job done.
However, if you use "Sign in with Apple" for websites, Apple automatically generates an email alias to keep your email address private.
Why Do You Need to Hide Your Email Address?
If you keep your real email address private, an attacker fails to get a point of contact for phishing attacks.
If your account doesn't include two-factor authentication (2FA), not exposing the email address (which is normally the username) may prevent brute force login attacks too.
No matter what service or newsletter list you sign up for—everything is subject to a potential data breach. So, if you do not share your real ID, it will not expose your email address.
Once an email address is exposed in some way, it is highly likely that your inbox will be flooded with spam, which might make it difficult for you to keep your account organized.
