Hello, I have some quesrions about email aliasing. I have two main reasons I want to use email aliasing.
Prevent service providers from tracking me
Prevent spam mail from possible data breaches.
I have two options: SimpleLogin and Addy. I also am able to self-host both of them.
With my previously stated goals, I think the best option for me is to use a seperate alias for each account. I would also like PGP encryption and being able to reply frok each alias.
I have one big question though: Would using identifiable domains compromise my goals? Would advertisers and spammers be able to track me across a myusername.addy.io or a mycustomdomain.com domain?
This is what I’m not sure about, and knowing the answer to this question could be the difference between which plan I buy or whether or not I self-host email aliasing.
With my stated goals, what do you think the best solution for me? And how does my question about unique domains affect what I should do?
Based on the things you want, I think SimpleLogin is the best option for you. It has everything you want and provides a lot of flexibility and premium features if you pay for it. I would not self host unless you are absolutely sure you can maintain it yourself.
Also, how do you mean “track” here? In what context?
Its an email alias. Half the point is that you can get rid of it or make it difficult if not impossible to “track” you in any way if at all there is something you’re doing with your email or sharing your email with questionable entities.
I mean, for example, if my email alias was in a data breach, and it was a unique alias (such as myusername.addy.io), would spammers or advertisers be able to find my other aliases and track me or spam me using just the domain, compromising all of my other aliases?
I’m that’s really only an issue, potentially a minor one at that if you make and use aliases with custom domains. If you use the ones they provide, then no. It’s not going to be an issue.
But using custom domains will make you stand out indeed and your other email aliases may be filtered if the breach is big enough such that your other emails are also leaked.
If you use a domain/subdomain that is only used by your aliasing account, then it is possible to infer that all addresses at that specific domain are owned by the same person.
However, if one alias is leaked, that doesn’t mean an attacker will know about all other aliases that share the same domain.