There are various ways to get an anonymous email address, including signing up for free email services without revealing personal information, using online anonymous email services that claim to delete user information, and using remailers to send truly anonymous emails. However, even these methods have limitations and potential tracking risks. Using a series of sequential remailers can help increase anonymity and security.
Depending on the level of anonymity and privacy you want, there are a few easy ways to get an anonymous email address. The easiest way is to sign up for one of the big free email services without revealing any real identifying information. However, this e-mail is not completely anonymous, as the address of the originating computer is saved. There are also anonymous email services online that claim to delete information about their users or alter computer addresses. Finally, if it is important to only send an anonymous email, using a remailer is effective.
Big and popular email services might appear to be able to provide an anonymous email address, but they store the addresses of computers that use their services, which means that someone somewhere knows who owns the email address related. This is done partly for our own security and partly to track users’ Internet activity for marketing purposes. While someone may not immediately know who sent them email from such a service, a determined or knowledgeable user will be able to figure out their origins.
Some online email providers claim to provide secure and anonymous email address service. They do this by attempting to strip the user’s computer address and by constantly cycling the address of their proxy servers. This would make the emails appear as if they came from different locations and could hinder automatic spam filters. This is a more anonymous method than other large services, but can still be effectively tracked.
Even more anonymous are temporary or disposable email address providers. These services provide a temporary and anonymous email address that will expire after a certain time or continuously delete emails and access logs. While these may be very secure, there is still a direct link between their servers and the sending computer.
One of the only ways you can send potentially truly anonymous email is to use a remailer. Remailers are online programs that accept an e-mail message anonymously and forward it to the destination address. They are safe because there is no return address in the email and no link remains between the original sender and the email. The downside is that there is no secure way for the recipient to reply to the anonymous email.
An additional problem with remailers, as with other services, is that they still have information about servers that could potentially connect the sending computer to the email server. The best way to send an email that needs to remain anonymous and secure is to use a series of sequential remailers. This involves sending emails from one remailer to another and then to a third or fourth. This effectively blurs the path between the sender and the recipient.
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