addy.io (AnonAddy) to hide your email address

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Today we are talking to you about a very particular service. addy.io (once called AnonAddy) is an anonymous email forwarding service, it helps you stay anonymous and not give out your email address everywhere. But how does it work? And what exactly does anonymous email forwarding service mean?

When you register on a site you are generally asked for a valid email address. There are four options that are used by the vast majority of people:

• use your main email (which is very often also name.surname);

• you have one junk mail dedicated that you only use for services you care little about;

• you register using a temporary email created on sites like 10 Minute Mail;

• the more cunning ones use the infinite and free aliases available with the “+” character. In fact, most email providers allow you to receive (and some even send) emails from youraddress+anyotherthing@dominio.it. Useful to differentiate the various registrations, for example: youraddress+facebook@dominio.it.

One email for all services can be a problem

Each of these possibilities has valid advantages and just as many defects.

For example, always using only your main email can be a problem. First of all, because your email address can potentially end up anywhere in case of leak (stolen data) and you would be inundated with spam. Furthermore, if you have a classic name.surname email you are somehow forced to identify yourself even on sites that perhaps would not require it.

Have one junk mail email is useful but, as in the previous case, if it ends up in some blacklist you could find your email ruined by continuous spam.

The other two methods are a little more advanced but they also come with some problems. In fact, temporary emails are, in fact, temporary. So if you ever need that account again you will never be able to use it again. Furthermore, their domains are often blocked and cannot be used during registrations.

Aliases with a “+” however bring with them other problems: the first is that often you can only receive an email and don't send it with that alias. In this case it is therefore not very useful for those sites that also require a response. Furthermore in case of leak the system is very well known and is easily reversible: any bot can automatically remove the '+' and know your main address. Finally, it may happen that some websites do not work correctly or have some unexpected behavior with this type of alias ¹.

addy.io can be a valid solution

One of the most interesting solutions to definitively resolve the issue is addy.io.

Thanks to addy.io in fact you can create infinite aliases with the subdomain @username.anonaddy.com or @username.anonaddy.me. Alternatively you can choose to use your own domain created specifically for the occasion.

This solution is also not risk-free, in fact the domain @anonaddy.com could be blacklisted and your emails would not arrive properly. We must be honest, however, it hasn't happened to us yet, however it is something that should not be underestimated (for this reason, but we will see later, it is recommended to use the service especially with a personalized domain).

What exactly does this mean? What are aliases?

Let's take a practical example, since it is certainly easier said than done.

If you need to register on Facebook you can use the email: facebook@youruser.anonaddy.com. Addy.io will automatically forward the email to the address you have previously decided.

In this way, Facebook will never be able to know what your real email address is but will only know you by your alias. addy.io also allows you to answer from the alias.

The merits

Let's see together what we think are the advantages of this solution:

• you can create a personalized email for each individual registration. This is useful for two reasons: in the meantime, in the unfortunate event your email ends up in some spam archive you can simply delete the alias and replace it with another. You can also find out if anyone has sold your email address to third parties. In fact, if you receive a promotional email on facebook@vostrouser.anonaddy.com you have no doubts about who may have sold your data;

• the day you decide to change your email address you will no longer have to change it on all the sites you are registered on but it will be enough change the address set up on addy.io;

• you are not obliged to use the domain @username.anonaddy.com, you can very well purchase your own domain (and this is the solution we recommend) and create infinite aliases such as facebook@yourdomain.it;

• you can answer from the alias created, fundamental for all sites that require it;

• addy.io it's completely Open source both client side and server side ² and therefore you can also, if you wish, self-host it on your own if you are an expert user ³;

• again for the more experienced, it is also possible to use the own PGP key ⁴ in forwarded emails;

And the flaws

Therefore, in our opinion, the advantages are many, albeit obviously the system is not free from defects:

• you rely on a third-party service that promises not to read your emails and says to just forward them. As we said it is Open source, but as we know on the server side you can't know what's really running;

• it is a service that has existed for several years and which practically always works without problems ⁵. However, it seems to be mainly run by one person: Will Browning who over the years has proven to be an attentive, intelligent person who knows how to listen to the community. addy.io it is a professional service in all respects and Will Browning He doesn't seem like a person who leaves anything to chance. In fact, in the FAQ there is also the question: “What happens to addy.io if you die?” ⁶ and the answer, in summary, is: “domains are always registered for at least 5 years and there are people who know exactly how to keep it all going and will make an announcement on Twitter so you can decide whether to continue using the service or less";

• as previously mentioned, the @anonaddy.com domain may be on some blacklists and create receiving/sending problems.

addy.io: conclusions and alternatives

Some of the services we talked about are only available in the paid version and in the free version there are various limits such as those of the daily bandwidth (email weight).

Exist alternatives to addy.io which do almost the same thing with, in turn, other strengths or weaknesses. We highlight the most famous alternatives:

• SimpleLogin, a recently founded company that offers a service very similar to addy.io. It seemed slightly more complex and less intuitive but it is still very simple to use. AND Open source ⁷;

• Firefox Relay, new service offered by Mozilla Firefox. It works very well and is free with paid premium features including the ability to reply via alias ⁸. We have to be honest though: lately Mozilla it eliminated widely used services such as Firefox Send. There is always a bit of fear that also remains Relay may end up forgotten. AND Open source ⁹. Last negative note: it seems that even the domains of Firefox Relay are not well seen by mail services and therefore there is the risk of ending up in spam ¹⁰.

• DuckDuckGo Email Protection, even the most famous duck on the web is trying to enter the magical world of emails. You can have a @duck.com address for free which will forward the various emails to your main email address, automatically eliminating the tracers present. Interesting service but currently with some defects such as the obligation to register via their Android application (which however it is Open source ¹¹) and the use of only one alias. The alias was recently given the opportunity to respond ¹²!

• Shorud.email is another interesting service for creating aliases. It is very similar in use to addy.io but it doesn't have a free version: you can try it for 30 days and then pay £2 a month or £20 a year;

• Erin.email, we don't have much information about this service but we know that it is free and Open source ¹³. It is not very clear how it is supported;

As we have seen, it is certainly an interesting service that we wanted to introduce you to, now it is up to you to decide whether it can be useful to you or not.

We are waiting for you upstairs Telegram, on Feddit, Reddit or up Matrix to let us have your experience!

1. Tip on Codeberg[↩]
2. source code on GitHub[↩]
3. How do I host this myself?[↩]
4. How do I add my own GPG/OpenPGP key for encryption?[↩]
5. Service Status[↩]
6. What happens to addy.io if you die?[↩]
7. SimpleLogin on GitHub[↩]
8. Can I reply to messages using my Relay alias?[↩]
9. Firefox Relay on GitHub[↩]
10. Mozilla's Firefox Relay to be added to disposable-email-domains blacklist[↩]
11. source code by DuckDuckGo[↩]
12. How do I reply from my Duck Addresses?[↩]
13. source code erine.email[↩]

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