Privacy › Module 5 › Lesson 1
Email Aliases & Burner Addresses
Use email aliases and forwarding to limit spam and trace data leaks
Opening
One inbox, many front doors
Your primary email is the keys to the kingdom—password resets land there. Email aliases let you give sites unique addresses that forward to your real inbox. When one alias starts getting spam, you know who leaked it and you can disable that alias without changing your main address.
1. Types of Email Aliases
Plus addressing (Gmail-style)
[email protected] delivers to [email protected]. Free and quick, but some sites block the plus sign.
Provider alias services
Apple Hide My Email, Firefox Relay, and SimpleLogin create random forwarders you can turn off individually.
Separate mailboxes
A dedicated junk-mail account for newsletters keeps marketing out of your primary inbox.
2. How to Use Aliases Safely
Use your primary email only for banking, government, and work. Use aliases for shopping, trials, forums, and apps. Label each alias in your password manager so you remember which service owns it. If an alias appears in a breach notification, rotate that site's password and disable the alias if abuse continues.
3. Catch-All and Custom Domains
If you own a domain, catch-all forwarding can create unlimited addresses like [email protected]. Powerful for power users, but securing the domain registrar with 2FA is critical—compromise there affects every alias.
Never alias your recovery email
Account recovery addresses should be stable and heavily secured—not disposable forwards that expire.
Knowledge Check
Email aliases help you:
Multiple choice
Knowledge Check
Your primary email should be reserved for:
Multiple choice
Knowledge Check
True or False: Plus addressing (user+tag@domain) forwards to the base mailbox on supporting providers.
True or False