What is An Email Alias and How Can it Improve My Security?
Email aliases are both a security feature and a convenience feature. As you may have surmised from the word “alias”, privacy and anonymity are dressed through the use of an email alias. They also help to prevent junk mail, making it easier to sort through your inbox without having to delete a bunch of unsolicited offers or suggestions that you purchase some kind of male enhancement pill. PrivateMail offers an email alias, or “identity”, feature that we strongly encourage you to use.
What is an Email Alias?
Email aliases are like a bunch of different costumes for the same inbox. You have one inbox, but multiple alias accounts. Say, for example, you are [email protected]. You only want your friends and family to reach you at that address. You like to sign up for community events, and those require you to receive emails. You can create the alias [email protected] for those emails. You can have your bills and credit card statement sent to [email protected]. With each one of these Alias accounts it’s also possible to create separate user identities, with specific names and email signatures for each.
Having these aliases helps you stay organized and secure when managing your inbox. You’re less likely to lose or forget things, and whatever important information you’re looking for won’t be buried in a pile of spam.
What’s the Difference Between an Email Alias and a User?
An alias, or multiple aliases, are assigned to one user. There’s only one account with one password and one main inbox. You can send emails and responses from each alias, but you do it while logged in to your sole account. You won’t need to log in to a different account to switch aliases.
Users are a completely separate thing. Every user has their own inbox and can have their own email aliases. Many people create multiple user accounts with mail providers that don’t offer email aliases, and it’s wildly inconvenient. It’s a lot more to keep track of. Rather than creating multiple accounts to keep yourself organized, you would utilize all of those aliases as one user.
What Are the Benefits of Utilizing an Email Alias?
Email aliases are a far less complicated version of what many people are currently doing. Switching to email aliases instead of having a million different accounts or trying to navigate a normal user inbox can drastically simplify your life.
It’s Easier to Stay Organized
Every alias can be set to receive mail in a specially designated folder. Your email gets sorted before you even check it. You won’t need to search high and low for your credit card bill (or even worse, lose it in your crowded inbox and get hit with a late fee) if it goes directly into your bill folder. You’ll see that it’s come in the moment it arrives, and you’ll be able to pay it right away.
Stay on Top of Spam Control
When you get a lot of spam sent to your normal user inbox, you likely have to retrace your step and constantly unsubscribe from things. If someone shares your information with a third party, it’s easy to narrow down the culprit judging by which alias started receiving spam. If you’re getting a ton of spam to a particular alias, you can just drop that alias. Problem solved – it’s that simple.
Increase Your Anonymity
You might want to use your actual name with your family, your work connections, and your financial institutions. Do you really want to use your actual name for the Cat Lovers Monthly newsletter? An email alias means that you don’t have to, and your love of adorable felines can remain a secret. Aliases allow you to sign up for something with what can effectively become a burner email address. This makes you harder to track online, and reduces the risk that your identity could be placed at risk during a data breach involving something you’ve signed up for.
Start Using PrivateMail’s Identity Feature
PrivateMail allows users to create email aliases via the Identity feature. It’s simple to use, and it adds a new layer of security to your inbox. Between email aliases, encrypted cloud storage and OpenPGP encryption, you’re as safe as you can possibly be when sending or receiving emails.
