How To Create A Secret Email Address

Contents

What is an anonymous email?
Why do you need an anonymous email?
Is there such a thing as an untraceable email?
Best anonymous email providers
- ProtonMail
- Tutanota
- Secure Email
- Guerilla Mail
- AnonAddy
- PrivateMail
- Mailfence
Other ways to use anonymous email accounts
- If you only need to send emails
- If you only need to receive emails
- If you can't say goodbye to Google
Protect your identity with a VPN

What is an anonymous email?

Put simply, an anonymous email is one that hides the sender's identity and doesn't contain any personally identifiable information. An anonymous email can't be traced back to you.

Anonymous email services encrypt your messages, so, even if they were intercepted in transit, nobody could see their contents. Your email address, the time when the message was sent, your device's name, and even your IP address will also be hidden from the recipient.

Why do you need an anonymous email?

There are lots of reasons why you might want to send and receive anonymous emails:

You might be a journalist writing about sensitive topics like riots or civil war.
You could be an activist fighting for freedom of speech or other human rights.
You might need to blow the whistle on an unethical company or a government.
You might live in a country with an oppressive regime where your emails and everything you do online is monitored.
You don't want tech giants like Google to read your email and track your online behavior.
You care about privacy and security, and don't want your emails to be personally identifiable in case of a breach.

A lot of email providers offer secure email services but not all of them shield your identity. Some will only encrypt the content of your emails, so be sure to check whether it hides your IP address, whether it asks for your personal information when signing up, and whether it offers extra security features like burner emails.

Use NordVPN to hide your IP address and traffic whenever you go online.

Is there such a thing as an untraceable email?

While no one can guarantee you 100% untraceability, you can significantly improve your privacy by using anonymous email accounts. They keep your address anonymous and encrypt your connections, and you can also use an alias system to create several profiles, thus protecting your identity.

However, even the most robust security tool won't protect you if you don't protect yourself. So, make sure to use strong passwords, never click on suspicious links, and use NordVPN to protect your traffic everywhere. Common sense and awareness will make you much more untraceable.

Best anonymous email providers

To help you stay secure, we reviewed the best anonymous email providers that offer free encrypted email accounts and provide you with full anonymity.

ProtonMail

Proton Mail

ProtonMail is one of the most popular secure email providers. It uses PGP encryption to encrypt your emails before they leave your device and at rest. ProtonMail also has a zero-knowledge policy, meaning that no one, not even ProtonMail employees, can snoop on your messages. Unfortunately, ProtonMail doesn't encrypt your metadata, headers or subject lines.

You don't need to enter any personally identifiable information to create an account either. However, you have the option to link a recovery email in case you forget your password. You can also send self-destructing messages and determine their lifespan.

A free account will give you 500MB of storage and you will be able to send up to 150 messages a day. For more storage and extra features, you can opt for a paid service. However, Protonmail may ask you to enter your phone number to receive an SMS message to create or confirm your account. This may not be relevant for most users, but depending on your potential vulnerability, a free email that doesn't require a phone number might be a safer option.

Tutanota

Tutanota is another popular choice amongst online security and privacy experts. They use their own encryption standard to encrypt your entire inbox, including your emails' subject lines and your contacts list. Tutanota provides end-to-end encryption between users but you can also send encrypted messages to non-users, all they'll need is a pre-shared password to decrypt them.

You don't need to enter any personally identifiable information to create your account and the free plan gives you a generous 1GB of storage. Tutanota also strips your IP from your emails so that even if someone manages to snoop on your traffic they will not be able to locate you. Tutanota's software is also open source, which means that anyone can look into its code to confirm its security.

Check out our review of Tutanota here.

Secure Email

Secure Email is a great anonymous email service provider that encrypts your emails with powerful 4096-bit key encryption and then uses SSL encryption to make sure that no one can snoop on them in transit. You don't need to share any personal information to create your Secure Email account, either.

Secure Email doesn't cooperate with the US PRISM surveillance programme and is very open about their privacy policy. They don't log your IP address, meaning that they have no personally identifiable information about you and cannot pass any information on to governments or snoopers.

Guerilla Mail

Guerilla Mail is another great encrypted email provider. It has been around for over a decade, providing users with free and disposable email address that can be used to send and receive anonymous emails. You can even create your own email address or use their "scramble address" feature to create a randomized address.

No personal data is required to create an account, but if you're still worried about it being traced back to you, Guerilla Mail will let you send anonymous messages without an account. Another great feature is their self-timing messages, which means that any messages you recieve last an hour, for extra protection against breaches.

AnonAddy

AnonAddy stands for "Anonymous Email Address", and this pretty much describes what it does. It's a transparent and open-source email-forwarding service that encrypts your emails and doesn't track you. It also doesn't use ad targeting.

AnonAddy uses an aliases system to allow you to host multiple emails and thus protects your privacy. It also has tons of useful functions, including protecting your email address from unsolicited spam by deactivating aliases and identifying who sold your data by using different email addresses for every site.

AnonAddy can also protect you from cross-referencing, which may reveal your identity in case of a data breach. You can also reply to emails without revealing your true address.

PrivateMail

PrivateMail offers an anonymous encrypted email service. It uses end-to-end OpenPGP encryption, encrypts your stored files, and allows you to enable the self-destruction of emails and contacts. The service is also convenient for secure file sharing. It doesn't encrypt data on its servers, so personal info never gets into employees' hands. PrivateMail boasts extensive functionality and multi-platform support, so it is an email service definitely worth checking out.

Mailfence

Mailfence is another email system offering OpenPGP based on end-to-end encryption. It provides secure email services but also offers other email features such as calendar, contacts, documents, etc. You can also use aliases for managing your different identities and filter your incoming emails to protect privacy and avoid spam.

Mailfence also maintains transparency reports and warrant canaries. Its servers are located in Belgium, so it doesn't have to adhere to US gag orders, extradition treaties, or national security letters.

To keep your internet activity private use the NordVPN app. It'll add an extra layer of identity protection and security, by encrypting your traffic.

Other ways to use anonymous email accounts

1. If you only need to send emails

If you only need to send an anonymous email but don't need to receive a response, consider using a one-way anonymous email platform like, AnonymouseMail, CyberAtlantis, 5ymail, and W3 Anonymous Remailer. Some of them will allow you to use the recipient's public PGP key to encrypt your message, while others will send you read and received receipts while keeping your identity completely hidden.

2. If you only need to receive emails

TrashMail is one of the most popular inbox-only email providers out there, and is highly recommended by privacy experts.

TrashMail is an untraceable email provider that offers free account holders up to 25 disposable emails from 16 different domains. It filters through and rejects spam so you only get the messages you want to read while keeping your real address anonymous.

You can also set a lifespan for your TrashMail account, which can be anywhere from 1 day to a year. The account will be deleted automatically once it reaches the end of its lifespan. You can also set how many times each of your accounts will forward you emails to your original account. The free version only allows you to have up to 10 forwards.

Trashmail also has Google Chrome and Firefox extensions, which means that you don't even need to visit the site to use their free secure email services.

3. If you can't say goodbye to Google

If you aren't ready to leave Gmail altogether but still want to send anonymous emails, you could create a Gmail account with fake information. However, Google will still ask you to provide your phone number to confirm your account. Once you have a fake account, you can set up PGP encryption so that neither Google nor anyone else will be able to snoop on your emails. However, even with PGP encryption, Google and snoopers can still see your IP and your location. The good news is that a VPN can hide both, so its best to use the NordVPN app alongside PGP.

Protect your identity with a VPN

A VPN hides everything you do online from ISP trackers and remote hackers by encrypting all of your traffic and data while it's in transit. It also protects your identity and hides your location by masking your IP address, so if you're looking for overall privacy protection alongside anonymous emails, using a VPN is a no-brainer.

For instance, if you're sending emails or doing online banking while using public Wi-Fi or any other unencrypted connection, your information could be stolen by hackers. If they discover your IP address, they could even try brute-forcing a connection to take over your device and steal your information. The NordVPN app secures you instantly with AES 256-bit encryption. For extra backup, it also includes a kill-switch that automatically cuts your device from the internet if you ever lose VPN connection.

Protect your online identity and secure your information with NordVPN.

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