Email aliases protect privacy and stop companies from tracking you

We’re conditioned to think our email address is harmless. Most of us think it’s just an ID, a way to get receipts and shipping updates, but that’s not it.

Your email is the skeleton key to your online identity. It’s what companies use to build behavioral profiles, target ads, link purchases and, sometimes worse, facilitate fraud after a breach. And when you reuse the same email address everywhere, you make that key universal.

To keep things private, I use an alias for online shopping to stay anonymous, cut down on spam and more. Let’s discuss what aliases are, why they matter and how they quietly turn the tables in your favor.

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How email aliases help you stay anonymous online

Each time you enter your main email on a shopping site, you give that company a lasting way to connect your behavior across different platforms, devices and timeframes. They might hash or encrypt your email, but the behavioral patterns remain. You can still be tracked, but aliases interrupt that chain.

Instead of sharing my actual email address, I create a unique one for each website. The emails still reach me through forwarding, but the company never sees my real address. That small change prevents them from linking my activity with other accounts or sites. It is not a perfect solution, but it adds just enough friction to disrupt the tracking systems.

Every alias I use becomes a kind of tracker. If one starts getting spam, I know which site sold or lost my data. Most people don’t know where the breach happened, they just assume “it happens.” I take a different approach. When an alias starts getting unwanted emails, I do not try to unsubscribe or set up filters or waste time guessing. I simply disable the alias, and the problem is gone.

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A spam phishing email is displayed on a laptop screen March 21, 2022. Retail companies often sell shopper data, leading to unwanted spam and phishing messages. (Peter Dazeley)

Stop companies from tracking you with email aliases

The average e-commerce…