Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast Using Aliases to Improve Privacy
Our email addresses and cell phone numbers have become highly valuable identifiers for marketers. Like government-issued IDs, your email address and phone number are directly associated with your identity and you will probably have them for life. This makes them ideal for tracking you across websites and accounts. It’s no wonder that you are asked to provide this information all the time, for the simplest things. So why not throw them off your trail by having multiple email addresses and phone numbers? It’s not as hard as you think, and it’s getting easier all the time. This is a privacy concept called aliasing and we’ll delve into all the details with the CEO and founder of SimpleLogin, Son Nguyen Kim.
Interview Notes
- SimpleLogin: https://simplelogin.io/
- Proton & SimpleLogin: https://proton.me/support/create-simplelogin-account-proton-account
- Data Privacy Week: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/data-privacy-day-checklist/
- Fastmail Masked Email: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/4406536368911-Masked-Email
- Apply Private Relay: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614
- DuckDuckGo Private Email: https://spreadprivacy.com/introducing-email-protection-beta/
- MySudo: https://mysudo.com/
- Hushed: https://hushed.com/
- Privacy.com: https://privacy.com/
Further Info
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- Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book
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Table of Contents
Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.
- 0:01:37: Book updates
- 0:03:10: Interview setup
- 0:03:57: What is SimpleLogin ?
- 0:05:04: How are email addresses used to track us?
- 0:06:19: Why do we use email addresses as user names?
- 0:09:42: How do normal email services provide aliases?
- 0:11:18: How does email subaddressing work?
- 0:13:05: How do modern email aliases work?
- 0:16:34: Do replies to alias emails expore your real address?
- 0:20:05: How do you use aliases to manage spam?
- 0:22:38: Can emall alias services read my emails?
- 0:23:36: How do you know you can trust an email alias provider?
- 0:26:41: How can you use domain names and catch-all aliases to fight spam?
- 0:30:52: Why are email aliases sometimes rejected?
- 0:34:45: What happens to my aliases if the service goes away?
- 0:36:50: What are the security benefits of using aliases?
- 0:39:44: Why is it so hard to create a phone number alias?
- 0:42:52: How can I get a second phone number?
- 0:47:13: Why are phone aliases often rejected?
- 0:49:15: What other ways can we use aliasing to improve privacy?
- 0:52:27: interview wrap-up