Disposable identities
Nathan Taylor explains how to create a burner identity to keep your real one safe.
At this juncture, we’d like to think that most internet users have cottoned on to the idea that it’s a good idea to have a junk email address, one used solely to log into sites of dubious character. There are so many sites that demand you give them your email address to log in (so they can send you a “confirmation code”) that it’s nearly essential to have an email address exactly for that purpose. Inevitably, the email address used will get sold by some unscrupulous site owners to spammers, and you can expect the given address will forevermore be polluted by endless waves of spam mail. Better for that to happen to a secondary email address than your main one.
But having a second email address is just the beginning. If you truly want to protect your online identity from those who demand it, then you can try some of the additional tools we’ll be covering in this issue.
Apple’s burner emails
As part of its iOS 13 update, Apple introduced an integrated burner email system to go along with the Sign in with Apple ID option. When you use Sign in with Apple ID on sites that support it, you’ll be given the option to hide the email address associated with your Apple ID. If you do so, Apple will provide a temporary email address to the site and relay messages from that site to your main account, hiding your real email address.
Unfortunately, Google and Facebook, the most commonly used automatic sign in accounts, do not yet share this feature. When you use your Google or Facebook account to sign into a website or app, there’s a very high chance that you’ll be giving up the email address associated with that account (technically it depends on permissions, but your email address will almost always be provided).
Temporary email addresses
It’s easy enough to create a secondary email address – just go to an online email provider like Gmail, Outlook, Mail.com or any of the many free online email providers out there and create a new account.
But these accounts do have flaws. For a start, most will still demand that you give up some personal information to sign up – your mobile number, for example, so there’s still a link back to your real identity. That link may be held by the email provider, and you have to trust that they will not give it up.
The alternative is to use a true burner email address, one that has no ties to your personal identity and only exists for a finite amount of time. Thankfully there are dozens of websites that can help you out with a temporary email address. For example, using a VPN, try visiting one of these sites:
• temp-mail.org
• www.guerrillamail.com
• www.fakemail.net
When you visit one of these sites, it will give you a fake email address
and an inbox interface with which to use it. Some, like Temp Mail and FakeMail will even make your address look legitimate by using real sounding names and domains. Some allow you to both send and receive emails; some only receive.
Just use the email address provided to sign up to the dubious website or communicate with a person you don’t trust. The address will expire, and all emails will be deleted, either when you close the tab with the email site, or according to a timer shown on the site.
Burner mobile numbers
Robocalls, scams calls and other unsolicited calls are a plague, one that the telecommunications providers have yet to figure out how to fix. It has gotten so bad that people have simply started blocking all calls from people not on their contacts list (something we discussed in the Home Networking column in the December issue).
Still, much as with email, you sometimes need to provide a mobile phone number in order to get things done. Commonly, for example, a site will want to SMS you a login code. That presents the risk that your phone number will make its way to the call lists of some unscrupulous operators. Now you could get an actual second SIM card – which has to be registered in Australia – and swap in and out, but there are easier ways.
For a start, there are a number of sites that run public burner
SMS services. Much as with the email sites above, they provide an SMS number you can give to the site or individual, and you’ll see any SMSs sent to that number appear on the website.
The important distinction here is that most of the free services that do this offer a shared mobile number. That is, everybody who visits the site will see the name mobile number and they will all be able to see the SMSs that come in on that number, so if you’re expecting private information to come through then you shouldn’t use it. Some examples of these kinds of sites include:
• receiveasms.com
• www.temp-phone-number.com If you want something more private, or if you want to make and receive voice calls on a temporary number, then you will have to pay for it. It’s probably less than you would if you were to buy a second SIM card, however.
There are several companies that will offer a disposable mobile phone number, though only a few such as Hushed ( hushed.com) offer Australian numbers. Hushed offers plans from a US$2 seven-day plan that includes 60 SMSs and 20 minutes of talk; to a US$5 per month plan that includes unlimited calls and SMS. Each number has its own ‘plan’ so if you wanted two extra numbers, you would pay for two plans.
To use Hushed, you just need to install the app on your mobile. You create an account and tap on ‘get new number’ to choose your plan. Then you choose a country and claim a “dummy” number that you can use for the period of the plan (and can be deleted or the lease extended from the settings menu). Calls are made from and received within the mobile app itself, and it will import your contacts. It uses voice over IP, so it won’t use you mobile plan’s call quotas, but it will use your internet quota. Next month: We continue with this theme, looking at anonymous and secure online payment options.
The alternative is to use a true burner email address, one that has no ties to your personal identity and only exists for a finite amount of time.