Email Alias Services
How They Work, Why They Matter, and How to Choose One
In today’s digital landscape, protecting your privacy isn’t just a technical concern, it’s a human rights issue. With a background in law and a strong interest in digital rights and security, I believe privacy should be a right that everyone can understand and protect, regardless of their technical background.
This newsletter is designed to teach everyday users simple, practical steps to better protect their digital footprint and regain a bit more control online. Along the way, it explains important concepts so we can better understand how our data moves and how to keep it safe.
Email Alias Services
How They Work, Why They Matter, and How to Choose One
What is an email alias?
An email alias is a forwarding address that acts as a decoy, delivering messages to your real inbox while keeping your true address hidden from the sender. It’s like a burner phone number for your email, but one you can keep using, deactivate, or delete at any time.
Aliases are especially useful when signing up for online accounts, newsletters, or apps. Instead of sharing your real address, which can be tied to your identity, you share an alias. If that alias gets spammed, leaked, or misused, you can simply turn it off without affecting your main inbox.
How do email alias services work?
Email alias services generate unique forwarding addresses that protect your real address from being exposed. Here’s how it works:
You create a unique alias (e.g., netflix@simplelogin.com).
You sign up for Netflix using that alias instead of your actual email.
Netflix sends an email to the alias address.
The alias service securely forwards the message to your real inbox, without reading or storing its contents.
You can reply through the alias, and the service relays your response without revealing your real address.
Why not just use a burner email account?
Some people deal with spam or privacy concerns by creating a throwaway Gmail or Outlook account for signups. While this can reduce clutter, it doesn’t truly protect your identity. These accounts are still tied to Big Tech providers that can log your activity, scan your emails, and link your data across services. And if that junk account ever gets compromised or overloaded with spam, you might have to abandon it entirely.
Email aliases offer a more privacy-focused solution. You can generate a new alias for each site or app, keeping your real email completely hidden. If one alias starts getting spam, you can disable it instantly without affecting your main inbox. Plus, aliases are harder to link back to your identity, especially when used with anonymous signup options like encrypted email services, Tor, and a VPN.
⚠️ Note: Do not use an alias when signing up for a truly anonymous email account or online identity. While an alias hides your real address from the sender, the alias provider still knows where messages are being forwarded. Even with strong protections, alias services must see the destination email to forward messages. This means you’re still placing trust in the provider, so transparency, jurisdiction, and no-log policies matter. For stronger anonymity, create the email account directly using Tor, a VPN, and no personal information, without involving an alias provider.
Why should you care?
Because your email address is often the key to your entire digital identity. With it, companies can:
Track your purchases, habits, and login patterns
Share or sell your email to third parties
Correlate your accounts across platforms
Target you with ads, phishing, or spam
Link you to other datasets, even if you never give your name
Using aliases adds a protective layer between you and the services you interact with.
Okay, I'm in! How do I choose an secure email alias service?
Some alias services claim to offer privacy but quietly log metadata, inject ads, or operate under companies with poor track records. Others lack transparency, offer little control over aliases, or don’t protect the messages they forward.
What are key features of a secure email alias service?
🧹 Open Source: Is the service’s code publicly available for independent security audits?
🔒 No-Logs Policy: Does the alias provider clearly state that it does not log sensitive metadata, such as your IP address, the emails sent and received, the IP address incoming messages originated from, message subject, or message sent/received times?
🗝️ Encrypted delivery: Can the alias service forward messages using your PGP public key, so that even the provider cannot read the content it delivers?
👯 Alias Management: Can you create, deactivate, reactivate, and delete aliases on demand?
♾️ Number of Aliases: Can you create unlimited aliases?
😶🌫️ Reply from Alias: Can you reply to a relayed email without revealing your real email address?
🧩 Browser Extension: Does the service offer a browser extension that lets you generate aliases quickly while browsing or signing up for online accounts?
🔁 Interoperability: Does the alias service work reliably with a wide range of email providers?
📥 Tracker Stripping: Does the service detect and remove email trackers (e.g. trackers to collect information about your interaction with marketing emails)?
💳 Anonymous Payment Options: Does the service accept anonymous payments like cryptocurrency, gift cards, or even cash?
🙈 No Personal Info Required: Can you create an account without giving a phone number or revealing your identity?
⚖️ Privacy-Friendly Jurisdiction: Is the provider based in countries with strong privacy laws and minimal surveillance mandates?
Comparison Chart of Well-Known VPN Providers
The chart below compares five well-known alias email services—SimpleLogin, addy.io, Firefox Relay, DuckDuckGo Email Protection, and Hide My Email (Apple)—based on the criteria outlined above.
The best choice for you will depend on your desired level of privacy, security, and anonymity.
💡 Pro Tip: Avoid using parts of your real name or username in alias addresses (e.g., john.smith@silomails.com). Choose randomized or themed prefixes instead (e.g., streaming@silomails.com) to make them less linkable.
How to Get Started
📤 SimpleLogin
Visit https://simplelogin.io/
Click Sign Up
Enter the email address where you'd like messages forwarded
Enter a strong and unique password
Select your preferred plan (a free plan is available)
Once logged in, click New Alias to generate your first email alias
Start using aliases when signing up for websites or apps
You are now protecting your real email address and reducing your exposure to spam, trackers, and data leaks.
💡 Pro Tip: Start with a free plan to see if the interface, delivery speed, and alias management suit your needs. Then decide whether a paid plan with more aliases or features is worth it.
🔏 addy.io
Visit https://addy.io
Click Sign Up
Create username (used for login and also used in each of your generated aliases)
Enter the email address where you'd like messages forwarded
Enter a strong and unique password
Select your preferred plan (a free plan is available)
Once logged in, click New Alias to generate your first email alias
Start using aliases when signing up for websites or apps
You are now protecting your real email address and reducing your exposure to spam, trackers, and data leaks.
💡 Pro Tip: Even if your alias service strips trackers, disabling HTML emails reduces risk further by preventing hidden pixels, external image loads, or styling-based fingerprinting that can still reveal when you opened a message or what device you used. Most email clients let you disable HTML by default or view messages in plain text.
🦊 Firefox Relay
Click Sign Up
Log in with your Firefox Account (or create one)
Enter the email address where you'd like messages forwarded
Select your preferred plan (a free plan is available)
Once inside the dashboard, click Settings
Check the box next to Remove Email Trackers
Click Save
Return to dashboard and click Create New Alias to generate your first email alias
Start using aliases when signing up for websites or apps
You are now protecting your real email address and reducing your exposure to spam, trackers, and data leaks.
💡 Pro Tip: When you create an alias, add a label like "Banking" or "Job Board." It helps you manage your aliases later and makes it easier to retire them.
🦆 DuckDuckGo Email Protection
1. Visit https://duckduckgo.com/email/
2. Depending on your device or browser:
Firefox, Chrome, Edge, or Brave (desktop): You’ll be prompted to install the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extension
Safari on macOS: You must download and install the DuckDuckGo browser app for Mac
Mobile (iOS/Android): Use the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser app to sign up
3. Once the extension or app is installed, return to https://duckduckgo.com/email
4. Create your @duck.com forwarding address (consider using a pseudonym for added privacy)
5. Enter the email address where you'd like messages forwarded
6. Start using your Duck Address or generate new private aliases anytime
You are now protecting your real email address and reducing your exposure to spam, trackers, and data leaks.
💡 Pro Tip: Use One Alias per Site or App. This helps you identify exactly who’s responsible if your alias is leaked or abused, and lets you disable it without affecting anything else.
🍏 Hide My Email (Apple with iCloud+ subscription)
🖥️ macOS
Open System Settings
Click your Apple ID at the top left
Select iCloud
Click Hide My Email
Click the ➕ plus icon in the lower-left corner
Enter a label (e.g. "Newsletter Signups") and add notes if needed
Click Continue, then Done
Use your new alias when signing up for websites or apps
📱iPhone
Open the Settings app
Tap your Apple ID at the top
Tap iCloud
Tap Hide My Email
Tap the ➕ Create New Address to create a new alias
Enter a label (e.g. "Newsletter Signups") and add notes if needed
Tap Next, then Done
Use your new alias when signing up for websites or apps
🧃Sign in with Apple (if website or app permits)
On the app or website's sign-up screen, tap or click Sign in with Apple
If prompted, authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your Apple device password
When asked whether to share your email select Hide My Email to generate an alias
Apple will forward all messages from this service to your real email address
Complete the sign-in process as usual
You are now protecting your real email address and reducing your exposure to spam, trackers, and data leaks.
💡 Pro Tip: Even though alias services hide your email, your IP address is often logged. Using a VPN or Tor can help hide your location and add another layer of anonymity.
An Important Note on Jurisdiction
Where a privacy service is based and where it operates its servers can significantly affect how your data is managed.
Some countries have strong privacy laws that require court orders or due process before authorities can access user data. Others are part of intelligence-sharing alliances or have laws that allow broad surveillance or secret government demands. This means even trustworthy services may be forced to collect or share your information. Sometimes without telling you.
Some privacy-focused companies, like Mullvad, go a step further by carefully choosing where their servers are located. They may avoid placing servers in countries with weak privacy laws, mass surveillance programs, or aggressive data retention mandates. Others operate globally without these precautions, meaning your data could pass through and be stored in high-risk jurisdictions, even if the company itself is based in a privacy-friendly country.
When evaluating a service, it’s worth considering:
Where the company is headquartered
Where it runs its servers
Whether it owns and controls its infrastructure or relies on third-party hosting
For more detailed information on data protection laws by country, visit DLA Piper’s comprehensive guide, which covers over 160 jurisdictions worldwide. The platform offers an interactive heatmap and in-depth summaries of each country’s privacy laws.
💡 Pro Tip: Where an alias service is based matters, but safeguards like no-logs policies, transparent privacy practices, and minimal data collection can still reduce risk, even in countries with weaker privacy laws.
A detailed, easy-to-use Digital Privacy Log now accompanies this newsletter. It’s designed to help you keep track of the privacy tools you’ve installed, document your setup across devices, and securely store recovery codes, configuration notes, and other key settings all in one place.
Stay tuned for more practical tools and strategies to help you take control of your digital life.
Questions or feedback? Drop them below or send a private message.
#EmailAlias #SimpleLogin #addy.io #FirefoxRelay #DuckDuckGo #Apple #DigitalRights #DigitalPrivacy #DigitalSecurity #DigitalFreedom #HumanRights
SimpleLogin , addy.io, Mozilla, DuckDuckGo, and Apple offer trusted email alias services committed to helping users reclaim their privacy. None sponsor this article, and each offers tools designed to reduce tracking, stop inbox overload, and protect your real identity online.
If you’re interested, I encourage you to explore these options and choose the one that best fits your needs.
Newsletter Summary: Everyday Digital Privacy
This newsletter shares simple steps everyday users can take to strengthen our digital privacy, security, and anonymity:
🔒 Encrypting Your DNS Traffic — Learn how DNS requests reveal which websites you're trying to visit and how to encrypt them using services like Cloudflare, Quad9, Mullvad, and NextDNS.
🛡️ Hiding Your IP Address with a VPN — Understand what an IP address is, how your IP address exposes your location and identity, and how a trustworthy VPN like Mullvad VPN, Proton VPN, Riseup VPN, and Windscribe can encrypt all your traffic and hide where you’re connecting from.
📡 Hiding Your MAC Address — Discover how your devices' unique hardware IDs can be tracked by Wi-Fi networks (even when they're not online) and how to enable MAC address to limit passive tracking.
🌐 Privacy-Focused Browsers — Explore how your choice of browser impacts your online privacy, why mainstream browsers often collect extensive data, and how privacy-focused browsers like Mullvad, Tor, Firefox, and Brave can help block trackers, fingerprinting, and unwanted data collection.
💬 Private Messaging Apps — Understand what makes a messaging app truly private, how end-to-end encryption protects your conversations, why metadata still matters, and how to choose secure apps like Session or Signal that safeguard your communications from surveillance and hacking.
📧 Encrypted Email Services — Find out why email is one of the least private forms of communication by default, how end-to-end encryption works, and how to choose secure email providers like Posteo, Proton Mail, and Tuta that protect your messages (even from themselves).
💾 Secure Cloud Storage & File Sharing — Learn why mainstream cloud services leave your files exposed, how end-to-end encrypted storage tools keep your documents private, and how to share files securely using services like Cryptomator, Filen, Proton Drive, Tresorit or Sync.
🗝️ Encrypted Password Managers — Learn how password managers work, what makes one secure, and how to choose tools that use end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge architecture. Compare options like KeePassXC, LessPass, Proton Pass, and Bitwarden to find the right balance of privacy, usability, and control.
🔎 Private Search Engines — Learn how search engines track what you’re curious about, how that data is used to profile you, and how private alternatives like Startpage, Mojeek, Brave Search, Qwant, and DuckDuckGo let you search the web without being watched, logged, or targeted.
✉️ Email Alias Services — Learn how alias tools like SimpleLogin, addy.io, Firefox Relay, DuckDuckGo, and Apple Hide My Email protect your real address from spam, tracking, and data leaks by letting you create unique, disposable email addresses for each site or app.
