Cool. I've had a similar idea kicking around in my head for a few years. How do you think about the compromise/disclosure risk of the data you keep that associates the subscriber account with aliases?
Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
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Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#82One feature I'd love to see is automatic grouping, combined with the functionality you offer already. So for example if you have an email (using a custom domain): email@example.com You obviously will receive emails as you give out your email. Say for example you get emails from the following senders: - mail@google.com - azure@microsoft.com - notice@azure.com - ok@imgur.com - hello@startup.com It would be nice if the…
That's a really good suggestion! I agree it would be great to be able to create a per alias blacklist of senders who the alias will block emails from. That way like you said you don't necessarily have to deactivate the entire alias if you receive a couple of emails from an unexpected source. I'll definitely add this to my to do list, thank you.
Clone Outlook's SWEEP feature. It's a simple but powerful tool for creating email rules.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a really good suggestion! I agree it would be great to be able to create a per alias blacklist of senders who the alias will block emails from. That way like you said you don't necessarily have to deactivate the entire alias if you receive a couple of emails from an unexpected source. I'll definitely add this to my to do list, thank you.
Clone Outlook's SWEEP feature. It's a simple but powerful tool for creating email rules.
I've not heard of that as I normally use Mozilla Thunderbird. I'll look into it.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#84Delivering mail services on the Internet is hard. Really hard. It's even harder to do correctly, and harder yet to prevent abuse. It is quite likely that you're going to end up in a game of whack-a-mole with abuse issues, and that's going to be your primary fight. The moment somebody abuses the system, your IP gets RBL'd or DNSBL'd and it's game over until it's fixed.
It's a cool product that has a lot of great legitimate uses, no doubt. I just hope you've baked in security at the core, and that you have a contingency plan for when your IP's get blacklisted. I fear for your sanity, but wish you the best!
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#85Cool. I've had a similar idea kicking around in my head for a few years. How do you think about the compromise/disclosure risk of the data you keep that associates the subscriber account with aliases?
I encrypt as much sensitive information in the database e.g. recipient email addresses, descriptions etc.
Someone suggested the idea of creating hashed aliases, that are generated and hashed on the client side so that even I do not know what they are, then incoming emails are compared against this hash to determine where to forward emails.
The only thing is there would probably need to be an additional column on the hashed alias that is client side encrypted so that the user can still view the actual alias in their dashboard.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#86Each pricing tier lists "everything is free" in the top line. Do you mean, "no usage fees"?
It actually says "everything in free" meaning you get everything that is in the free plan plus the rest of the items in the list. Perhaps I could make this more clear?
Perhaps "Everything in the Free plan"? I read it correctly, but it would be a pretty easy mistake to make.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#87Anyone here remember anon.penet.fi or whatever it was called? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penet_remailer It was shut down in the end, but I think some of the legal challenges it faced might be better handled now.
I remember penet from the early Internet, although I never used it...
I agree that the OP / Service Provider - should read up on the legal issues surrounding a service like this... The Wikipedia link above is a good place to start. Ideally get a good lawyer and give that link to them...
If I had to make a choice, I would choose any other SaaS business, due to the historically contraversial nature of this type of service -- but that being said, I wish the OP good luck in his endeavor!
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#88Anyone here remember anon.penet.fi or whatever it was called? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penet_remailer It was shut down in the end, but I think some of the legal challenges it faced might be better handled now.
I remember penet from the early Internet, although I never used it... I agree that the OP / Service Provider - should read up on the legal issues surrounding a service like this... The Wikipedia link above is a good place to start. Ideally get a good lawyer and give that link to them... If I had to make a choice, I would choose any other SaaS business, due to the historically contraversial nature of this type of serv…
One other thing... before users sign up, perhaps you could tell them what will happen to their data if you are ever served by Law Enforcement with a Warrant to give them some user's data... If the answer is that you're going to give your users' data to Law Enforcement (the right answer, as far as I know), then your "private" / "privacy protecting" service -- really wasn't all that "private" / "privacy protecting", now was it?
It would be far more honest and up-front to tell prospective users that their data will not be private in/under all conditions/circumstances...
If you lose would-be users because of this, well, at least you showed honesty and integrity...
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#89There's a much harder problem, granted, but the world needs a throwaway SMS service. Even Imgur needs a phone to sign up now :( There are already some services like this, however it seems they have a smallish pool of phone numbers. Eventually everyone uses those to sign up, one time, somewhere (like Imgur) and that number is then useless for that site. Is there a better way?
I agree. Why does everything ask for phone numbers these days? What's next, a picture of my government ID?
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember penet from the early Internet, although I never used it... I agree that the OP / Service Provider - should read up on the legal issues surrounding a service like this... The Wikipedia link above is a good place to start. Ideally get a good lawyer and give that link to them... If I had to make a choice, I would choose any other SaaS business, due to the historically contraversial nature of this type of serv…
One other thing... before users sign up, perhaps you could tell them what will happen to their data if you are ever served by Law Enforcement with a Warrant to give them some user's data... If the answer is that you're going to give your users' data to Law Enforcement (the right answer, as far as I know), then your "private" / "privacy protecting" service -- really wasn't all that "private" / "privacy protecting", no…
Thanks for your suggestions, I agree. In the privacy policy on the site I do state that "information will not be provided under any circumstances to any parties other than when compelled by law." Logs are rotated daily and deleted after 7 days.
I'll do some more research on the legal issues you've mentioned above too.