Keep Your Email Private

If you've had your email account for any length of time, it probably receives tens (perhaps hundreds) of emails each day. However, since your email provider filters most of these into a spam folder, you never see most of them.  Most of the time, you never really pay much attention to your spam box, but wouldn't it be nice if you could keep your email address private so that spammers never find it in the first place?  Here are a few tips.

One simple solution is to set up a second account for all your online activities.  Any time you need to create an account at a site, enter your second address instead of your primary one, and all spam goes to that account.  If you need something that would be sent to that account (such as a receipt for a purchase), you can always go find it there and forward it to your primary account for safekeeping.  The one downside of this method is that you occasionally must log in and clear out the account.  If you do not log in occasionally, it will either become too full to accept any more emails or be deactivated due to inactivity.

A better solution is to use something you might already have installed.  I have recommended Blur as a great way to stop websites from tracking you.  However, Blur has many other useful features.  One is an email mask.  Instead of entering your email, you can have Blur create an email address for you.  Enter that email address instead of your primary email, and Blur will forward emails to you (which is excellent for clicking on that confirm link or getting a receipt for a purchase.)  Once you have received the emails you want, you can configure Blur to block any further communications from those sites.  Since this can be done on a site-by-site basis, you can still receive emails from a one site while blocking emails from another, even when using the same address.  Masked emails are available in both the free and paid versions of Blur.

Another option with similar features is Melt Mail.  With Melt Mail, you create a temporary address that forwards to your permanent address for a specific length of time (3, 6, 12, or 24 hours).  This gives you time to receive any communication you might want, and then the email address disappears and any further communication is returned.  Melt Mail also has an Android and iOS app available to create temporary addresses on the go.  However, the biggest problem with Melt Mail is that your email address will disappear forever at the time you specify.  If you use it to set up an account while making a purchase and later need to reset your password to log back in to see your order status or receipt, you will not be able to receive the email to reset your password.

To check out these two sites for temporary email, use the links below:
Blur by Abine
Melt Mail