A recent comment on my previous post, “Me, Myself and My Screen: Muliplicity, Identity and Email,” from Pierre brought up the existence of email addresses existing specifically for subscribing to websites that might send spam emails. While the number and type of spam messages send to such an email account can say a lot about your identity, a new type of email address has given us a new angle from which to examine identity. It’s called…Mailinator.Mailinator is supposedly one way to protect anonymity online. According to its website:
“Mailinator was the first (and still the best!) disposable email service for people who want to protect their online identity. It is a tool that allows users to create an on-the-spot email identity that provides anonymity and fights web inertia in one easy step.”Looks like Mailinator purports to take the identity out of online identity. By removing the need to register for their service, the Mailinator team creates a semblance of anonymity for Internet users as well as virtually doing away with the hassle of spam. You’re not responsible for emptying your inbox, and there is no limit to the amount of emails sent to you. In addition, no passwords are required to access the inbox to which your mail is sent. This means that you could potentially share an inbox, or someone could stumble across the email address you are using and check your messages.
It’s a pretty wild idea, and best of all, it’s free. Next time you need to register for something online, try Mailinator. Sometimes disposable’s the way to go. After all, it works for tissues.For more technical information about Mailinator, check out Mailinator creator Paul Tyma’s blog.
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Oho, very interesting! (and thanks for the mention, btw ^^)
ReplyDeleteNot to mention, very useful.
Bam! Bam! And the Spam is gone.
Just be sure not to use it for personal stuff, since anyone can sneak a peek! Other than that, who really cares about what others see in there? If it's anonymous, it could contain *anybody's* weird stuff you don't want others to see, not *yours* per se. ;)
Oh, right, but it's good for blocking spam. Who said anything about websites one doesn't want to be associated with? :D
But really, if I just want to register to a forum to ask a single question, I do it on my spammable e-mail, so I don't have to bother unsubscribing from the website. Another way this thing could have been useful.
Mailinator is certainly useful for those sites which allow you to subscribe, then promptly forget about you. Why bother taking up an email address that you're never going to use. Also, any email address that you use more than once will be enough for someone to learn something about you. Even if the only things you've subscribed to are for, say, CNN and NBC, someone could start to think that you're a left-leaning person interested in politics and news. Crazy eh? At least with Mailinator, your habits can be somewhat obscured since others are probably having things sent to the same address
ReplyDelete