All articles
Privacy
Email Aliases Explained
Maya Chen · Privacy Editor, SecureTempMail 6 min read
"Alias" covers a few different techniques. Here's how each works.
Plus-addressing
you+shop@gmail.com still delivers to you@gmail.com. Easy, but trivially stripped by spammers and obviously tied to your real address.
Catch-all domains
Own a domain and any address @yourdomain.com reaches you. Flexible, but your domain becomes the identifier.
Forwarding aliases
A service generates random addresses that forward to your real inbox, which you can disable individually. Good privacy, but mail still lands in your real mailbox.
When disposable wins
For one-off verifications where you never want the mail to reach you at all, a disposable address with no forwarding is cleanest. Compare approaches in disposable vs aliases.