Hey Friends,

Are you fed up of junk email clogging up your mailbox ? (hopefully not this one)

If you are anything like me you have probably signed up for more online services than you can remember, each of which required you to supply an email address to sign up. This can result in a flood of spam which is not only annoying, but can pose a greater threat to your privacy, since your email is often shared or sold to third parties without your knowledge.

In an effort to reduce my digital footprint I have recently engaged in another cull of old Internet accounts. I have managed to collate a growing list of accounts I plan to delete over the next few months. However, this got me thinking. Surely there is a better way to sign up to services on the Internet and retain control of your email. In particular, services you know you will never use again.

Fortunately, there are services that can help us deal with this problem by providing a temporary disposable email. This email can be used to sign up and deal with annoying verification messages without exposing your real email address to more spam and questionable third parties. I plan to write a detail article on this topic soon, but for now, here is a list of services you could look into:

• BurnerMail
• 10MinuteMail
• MailDrop

An alternative (and possibly better method) to using a burner service is to use email aliasing. Here, when a website asks you to sign up using an email address, you create a new alias. Now, whenever the service sends an email to your alias it is forwarded to your real email address without them knowing anything. You can even reply to the forwarded email and your real address is hidden since the service would receive the email from your alias email. In the future, if you decide you no longer want to use the service, you simply delete the alias and you will automatically stop receiving the forwarded emails.

This is a tool I wished I had discovered a long time ago as it can help with the strategy of Compartmentalisation which is an importatnt step in my Digital Balance Philosophy.

Watch out for an upcoming article explaining how to get started with email aliasing.

Take care friends,

Chris

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Things I've found interesting this week

\\ One Link: To the Simple Login service

\\ Two Article: Millions of hotel guests worldwide have their private details exposed

\\ Three Article: WatchDogs gaming leak

Favourite Quote

Voter fraud is a reality in elections, but it is typical of the candidate to confuse anecdote with data and turn allegation into conspiracy - Bret Stephens

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