What do you want advice about?
- I’m starting my privacy journey and creating email aliases for all my logins. I’m wondering about the technicalities of this — do websites still have a history of old email addresses you used to use? Is it better to recreate accounts with the new email rather than just switching it?
- I feel like this doesn’t exist, but is there a phone number alias service similar to simplelogin?
What have you considered or looked at already?
I’ve seen MySudo for phone numbers but unsure if that’s the best option
In brief, tell us about your privacy threat model?
Mostly trying to achieve privacy from ISP, limiting advertising, achieving anonymity across services through aliasing.
You’ll want to use a VPN like Mullvad, Proton or IVPN (some, including Henry, recommend Windscribe, but I personally don’t) if you want to start out with that.
MySudo, I heard, was great in not giving out your real phone number. I have Google Voice, but for a different reason. Limiting advertising is as simple as using a Firefox-based browser, hardening it to the nines, and adding uBlock Origin, Multi-Account Containers and LibRedirect (that’s my method of doing it).
For aliasing, it’s a good idea to do if you don’t want your real email exposed. I use SimpleLogin for aliasing on different services, and I have particular aliases for particular purposes (since I’m a relatively unknown public figure, I use my pseudonym everywhere).
I’m pretty sure that many services keep your old email saved. Such information can be used for security questions “tell us information only account owner can know, so that we know we can proceed with XYZ support”. You have two options:
- Ask the support if they keep the old email adress and how long they keep it. They usually do not lie about such questions.
- Just create a new account and request an account deletion of your old one at least for those accounts who do not need/own your real data as real name and real adress and for those who have no high value (example: Techlore would not want to recreate a Techlore-YouTube-Account etc).
About phone numbers: I never share my number online for privacy and security reason (so I also do not use Signal etc). I would recommend not to share it where ever possible. If you rely on it, well, others may know more than I do.
I would assume they keep your old email. When I started with Proton and aliases, I created new accounts (where possible), and deleted the old ones.
https://relay.firefox.com/. Firefox has a new phone relay service. It’s so new, I don’t have any information on it.
On email aliases:
- Don’t use them for anything sensitive
- They are great for compartmentalizing the inbox
- Having your primary email everywhere will just get you spam / more likely that your email gets into cold email lists.
- Use temp emails for one time stuff. Or just give random to see if they don’t confirm.
- Having a same email on websites can help them infer your identity.
Services I like for this- Addy, simplelogin, forward email vanity domains.
Your primary email shouldn’t contain your last name at least, maybe not even your first name.
Aliases give you more email id’s, so you can use them as new identities for stuff.
Have at least 2 proton mailboxes, one for finances, other for everything else.
Email aliases do not give you anonymity. An email address or alias is always an identity marker.
Aliasing helps to easily compartmentalize your online presence. It enables you to easily track who’s sharing your email address with whom. You can very easily shut down a source of spam, because you have to change it at most for one online account, when retiring one email alias, instead of all of them.
I’d recommend to create a new email account, one you pay for, with a provider that includes an aliasing service for it.
Assume that at least half of all services you have accounts with, will remember your old address. Decide on a case by case basis, what is more desirable to you: Keep your history with a business or start from a clean slate with that business?
For having multiple phone numbers, there is only VOIP. I can remember there is JMP.chat as a provider of multiple numbers. The problem is, those numbers are often not accepted.
Another idea would maybe be to have your own PBX. All your numbers would be obviously be grouped together in sequence, but you could still give every business you work with a dedicated number.
Thanks!
Just to clarify, I was moreso saying that email aliases help provide anonymity between services, as in it makes it more difficult to associate multiple accounts with the same identity.
my latest article may help :