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An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

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Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#61

Post by cromka »

redmattred wrote: post #26
yifanlu wrote: post #11

I signed up for Comcast Xfinity using a brand new “hide my email” address and three months later I started receiving phishing emails at that address. (I’ve gotten over half a dozen so far). Made me realize that either Comcast was hacked (without disclosing it) or they’re selling people’s emails.

I’ve experienced the same with comcast and have contacted their support. They claim there was no data breach or they aren’t selling emails, but that obviously isn’t the case.

Surely some attorneys would be interested in a class-action.

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#62

Post by binwiederhier »

cubesnooper wrote: post #51
MrRiddle wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s trivial to figure out main gmail address?

It’s almost as trivial with this format too, at least to guess what address is used for other services, though it has a strong advantage over using ‘+’ in GMail in that nothing will try this automatically. It’s hard to believe anyone would intentionally try to guess a different service’s email to spam to it, but even so in my setup I prefer to eliminate this possibility completely by adding a random number to the ser…

> It’s almost as trivial with this format too

I mean you can pick any format you want before the "@", but yeah my format is trivial. Nobody has tried to do it automatically yet though, as far as I can tell.

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#63

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

> It’s important to note that you shouldn’t use Hide My Email for everything. For example, you probably don’t want to use a random address for critical services such as online banking. If you trust the bank with your money, you can probably trust them with your email. I’d also think through those sites that may use your email to help others find you, such as social media accounts. If you’d like your contacts to find you automatically, you’ll need to use an email they know of.

Social media is high on the list of use cases for such addresses to help preserve one's privacy.

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#64

Post by dwighttk »

yifanlu wrote: post #11

I signed up for Comcast Xfinity using a brand new “hide my email” address and three months later I started receiving phishing emails at that address. (I’ve gotten over half a dozen so far). Made me realize that either Comcast was hacked (without disclosing it) or they’re selling people’s emails.

Probably both!

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#66

Post by TonyTrapp »

binwiederhier wrote: post #39

I have a unique email address for every single service that I sign up for, similar to this, though selfhosted. I've been doing this for years and it works wonderfully. If someone misuses my email address, or gets annoying, I can simply turn off the address. Bam! It's the easiest Postfix config in the universe, essentially just: virtual_alias_domains = domain1.com domain2.com virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/vir…

I'm doing it the other way around, which is slightly less work because you don't have to create new email addresses explicitly: Catch-all by default, with a recipient blocklist as part of smtpd_relay_restrictions that I update whenever some service gets breached.

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#67

Post by bertman »

up6w6 wrote: post #49

The most popular open-source alternatives are SimpleLogin[1] and AnonAddy[2]. The former one was just acquired by ProtonMail[3]. [1] https://github.com/simple-login/app/ [2] https://github.com/anonaddy/anonaddy [3] https://protonmail.com/blog/proton-and-simplelogin-join-forc...

Huh, hadn't heard about Proton buying Simple Login. I'm not sure how to feel about that. I really like SimpleLogin, but Proton always felt kind of "icky" for lack of a better word. Guess we'll see.

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#68

Post by rootusrootus »

binwiederhier wrote: post #39

I have a unique email address for every single service that I sign up for, similar to this, though selfhosted. I've been doing this for years and it works wonderfully. If someone misuses my email address, or gets annoying, I can simply turn off the address. Bam! It's the easiest Postfix config in the universe, essentially just: virtual_alias_domains = domain1.com domain2.com virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/vir…

I do a simplified version of this. I just use a catchall account with Fastmail and then pick email addresses in the domain randomly. If someone abuses the address, I block it. I specifically do not use addresses that make it obvious what my strategy is. I end up just using a name and number that would look right at home on gmail.

I'm also not trying to stop tracking, so much as I'm trying to have my own semi-permanent equivalent to mailinator that nobody will recognize as such, that I can use to cut back on the amount of spam I get.

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#69

Post by EE84M3i »

redmattred wrote: post #26
yifanlu wrote: post #11

I signed up for Comcast Xfinity using a brand new “hide my email” address and three months later I started receiving phishing emails at that address. (I’ve gotten over half a dozen so far). Made me realize that either Comcast was hacked (without disclosing it) or they’re selling people’s emails.

I’ve experienced the same with comcast and have contacted their support. They claim there was no data breach or they aren’t selling emails, but that obviously isn’t the case.

Well, it could also be the case that everything is working as designed, and that they gave your address to someone else who did have a data breach or is themselves sending the phishing emails.

Re: An Ode to Apple’s Hide My Email

#70

Post by stingraycharles »

stu2b50 wrote: post #36
newaccount74 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the email+tag. Spammers can just drop the plus tag and get your real email address?

They could, but they don't. Spammers cast a wide net and usually aren't concerned about the crumbs that fall through. Not to mention the people that do the plus or dot tricks are going to be extremely low value spam targets.

Yup, but assuming these spammers want to keep their lists of leaked emails fresh, it’s kind of silly that they’re so unconcerned about it: they’re very much helping to expose their suppliers. I feel that they must realize that can’t be good, but maybe I overestimate them.
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