I recently changed my Google user email to a new alias. I don’t use the alias for anything other than Google. Within a few days it started to receive spam. So I created another alias, exclusively for my Google account. And again: Spam within a few days.
Does Google really sell my email this quickly? Or do spammers try random email addresses using some guessing algorithm?
Weird. Have you checked your connected application in google ? Like facebook connected application, those apps receive your email address and other info. It could be the source of spam you’re receiving.
It would be unlikely that google itself is sending spam, but I can’t discard it.
Are you by any chance are still using gmail as the final routed inbox address for your aliases?
And whats your alias provider, did they share data with google?
We need more details on your setup before giving our opinion. Not trying to defend google or anything, i don’t trust them myself. Just trying to understand better since context and details matter.
No connected apps and no Gmail involved. The alias provider is addy.io.
One thing that might matter is that both aliases had the format “google@domain”. Before I was using one of addy’s domains, now I’m using my own domain. Catch-all is deactivated.
It’s the same kind of junk mail, advertising similar products, so I presume it’s the same source.
I’ll try some randomly generated alias and see what happens.
I don’t think Google really sells any data - they are more into the notion of prediction of what you want next based upon your data.
Were your newly created aliases easily known or discovered? I’d imagine that gmail, wearing a big target, likely gets bots testing all sorts of combinations for potential accounts all day/night.
I have an old old old gmail account without digits in the username. I get all sorts of spam as the username is in the form of firstnamelastname@gmail. It’ll come up in eventually in a join of a firstname and lastname databases.
Well…
I’ve found out that my Google account email address is publicly visible to anyone?!
Now how the heck do I turn that off…
It’s always publicly visible, since otherwise how would you get emails?
Even if they don’t sell data they share data or use that data for advertisers. Going as far as even data brokers territory if you wanna go that way.
Source for that? I’m pretty sure Google doesn’t sell or share data. They are a prediction engine. They match advertisers against users that they think will click.
I didnt’t say they sell data they do make it clear, but they may share data with advertisers or other parties as per https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US
- We don’t share information that personally identifies you with advertisers, such as your name or email, unless you ask us to. For example, if you see an ad for a nearby flower shop and select the “tap to call” button, we’ll connect your call and may share your phone number with the flower shop.
We may share non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners — like publishers, advertisers, developers, or rights holders. For example, we share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services. We also allow specific partners to collect information from your browser or device for advertising and measurement purposes using their own cookies or similar technologies.
I am sure there are people who know this much better then I do but, my understanding is the way Google sells data, that would not lead to an increase in spam emails. Usually spam is a sign that your data has been leaked unintentionally, rather then sold. I would reccommend you double check that there isn’t some other type of leak going on thats causing your email info to get out and be spammed.
Right, it can’t be the email visibility setting.
It must be some setting somewhere that publishes my email where some spammer script harvests it within minutes.
I’ll keep digging…
You mentioned you get spam based on ads you have seen? You’re browser is probably compromising you. What are you using?
No, it’s nothing that I’ve seen somewhere. It’s just ads about the same stuff (car accessories) and all the mails look similar. So I think it’s the same source.
Use Proton Mail with Duckduckgo email aliasing. Duckuckgo offers a completely free email alisaing service, you can create as many aliases as you want. Both Dcukduckgo and Proton Mail are privacy friendly, they do not sell your data like Google.
Might be a single entity trying to phish you. Otherwise if these things “car stuff” is a topic of interest to you, you’re definitely being tracked by your browser or a service you signed up for with said alias. You’re going to have to root it out.
Maybe going back to that specific alias and filtering what you have signed up for using it and verifying those sites/services for proper privacy might help you narrow things down faster. Keep in mind that one site that might’ve leaked it and now your being send spam for the purpose of data collection.
I use the alias only for Google.
I have not linked any apps or services through Google.