The value of email addresses

BLAYNE SLABBERT

The school my children attend recently sent an parents.email that included the email addresses of all It was probably an innocent mistake and no one made a big deal of it.

However, most people probably don’t realise the value of these email addresses.

It is the type of data that companies lust after and many would happily pay money to secure. That’s because it’s a list containing a targeted audience, in this case, several hundred primary school parents living in a certain area.

Parents are a ripe audience for many companies including those who sell school uniforms and gear, toys, and real estate.

Some advertisers have already tapped into lists of parents’ email addresses from other schools.

Be careful about who you give your email address to and consider getting a second account.

A colleague was surprised recently to see a company emailing her and other parents after their school allowed it access to their email addresses.

The value of your email address is increasing each year as companies try to connect with people. If someone has it, then they have direct access to one of your most used apps. Be careful about who you give it to and consider getting a second account for signing up to promotions.

But if you do want to clean up who has access to your address, there’s a new website that makes it easier to remove traces of yourself from the web and to reduce unwanted emails.

The site, deseat.me, helps you delete accounts you’ve created in your internet travels.

It is designed to ‘‘clean up your digital presence’’. It won’t remove you from all databases, only wellknown websites. It’s more of a Saturday morning tidy-up rather than a deep, spring clean.

I found I was registered with about 120 websites, ranging from Amazon to random sites I can’t even remember visiting. After using deseat.me, I deleted about 70 accounts and noticed a difference in the amount of unwanted emails I received.

Your email address is valuable. Giving it out to anyone or letting it get into the hands of random people or companies is inviting hassle into your digital life.