We use email for many things that require anonymity. From love letters to account confirmations, our mailboxes are home to some saucy stuff!
There’s just one problem: emails provideidentifiable two-way communication by design. Apart from the sender’s address, the email has much more that could identify it. for example, if you look at the entire header of the email, you might be able to find routing information. this could be enough to identify it and cause various problems.
But all is not lost! In this article, I’ll show you the correct way to send an anonymous email.
how to send an anonymous email without being tracked
- Choose a secure email provider. protonmail is one of the best options
- sign up for the service to get your mailbox
- log in to your account
- Enjoy your new more secure email communications!
Sending private email means hiding your real IP address and using a secure email service provider. The most popular email platforms like google or yahoo are great in their simplicity and storage, but they lack the privacy department.
If you’re hoping to start a private email conversation, there are a few things you can do. keep in mind that most of the time, there is no solution. You will get the best combination of privacy and security if you try to combine several methods. This will not only help keep you safe when writing private emails, but also when looking for weak spots in your daily browsing.
1. use an encrypted and anonymous email service
encrypted email will work like a regular service with the advantage that end-to-end encryption makes it much more secure. such encryption covers your emails, inbox and contact list. no one spying on your traffic will be able to read your emails, including even the service provider (in some cases). Different providers offer different features, but protonmail, tutanota, startmail, and guerilla mail are guaranteed to be more private than gmail or yahoo.
the most anonymous email accounts:
- protonmail – the best secure email provider
- startmail – the best user-friendly email provider
- tutanota – the most anonymous email provider
- guerrilla mail: the best temporary email against spam
2. use an email “burner”
Similar to how cheap prepaid phones are used on shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad, disposable emails are used temporarily and then thrown away. o expire after a fixed period o allow you to send a message without registering an account that can be traced back to you. you can use your temporary “send only” account in anonymous email.
Spam emails can help you fight spam when you sign up for questionable websites. the only drawback is that it can be very complicated to reset your account registered to a disposable email in case you forget your password. the best course of action would be to use disposable emails when you know you’re unlikely to need to use them in the future.
3. hide your ip
Whatever method you choose to send an anonymous email, your ip may still be a liability. to hide your ip address, you should use a no logs vpn or a tor browser. A VPN will encrypt your connection and route it through an intermediary server, hiding your real IP address. tor will pass your connection through multiple network nodes, making it untraceable. there are even some vpns that use these technologies together, like nordvpn’s onion over vpn.
4. remove metadata from files
If you’re submitting a word document, the metadata in the files could be your giveaway. it may contain your full name and other personal information that you do not want shared. if it’s just documents you want to send without being tracked, you need to take a screenshot and remove all exif data from it.
On Windows, there’s also a built-in tool for metadata removal called Document Inspector. This will help you to analyze what you’re including, giving you the ability to strip all the information from a file that you don’t want to be shared.
5. create a new email account
The easiest way to send email anonymously is to create a new email account. if you must use the services of gmail or yahoo, you can create an email using false information. choose a false name, address, date of birth and do not provide a phone number. Please note, however, that even with these precautions, these services will still track your cyber movements. they are also required to provide this information to law enforcement agencies.
the most anonymous email providers
If you want to send email anonymously, it always comes down to choosing a secure email provider. They may still keep a record with your name, IP or location, so you should choose one that respects your anonymity and does not collect your data.
1. protonmail: the best secure email provider
Visit ProtonMail
protonmail uses pgp encryption for your emails before they leave your device. guarantees a zero logs policy, so even if the police came knocking on the supplier’s door, they would have nothing to show them.
Please note that once the email is sent, it will not encrypt the metadata, headers, or subject lines. there is a free and paid plan (from $3.49 per month) that increases the maximum number of messages you can send per day. the only downside is that you’ll probably be asked to provide a phone number to confirm your account.
protonmail also offers message self-destruction. all you need to do is set your preferred expiration time, and when the time is right, protonmail will delete the messages from the recipient’s inbox.
other than that, this email service offers you a free vpn, apps for ios and android and an encrypted calendar.
2. startmail: the best easy-to-use email provider
Visit StartMail
startmail is what gmail could be if your company focused more on privacy than how to place ads. its parent company even runs startpage, which is one of the few privacy-friendly search engines.
Going by this example, startmail is one of the most private email boxes you could get. supports disposable emails, so you can add barriers to your mailbox. even if that email appears on a spam list, you can quickly get rid of it and create another one.
Like most privacy-focused email services, startmail encrypts messages locally and sends them over https. pgp is also supported, but your contact will also have to use a matching configuration. otherwise it won’t work.
3. tutanota: the most anonymous email provider
Visit Tutanota
tutanota can provide you with end-to-end encryption. If you need, you will be able to send encrypted messages even to non-tutanota users. the encryption includes not only your inbox, but also your contacts. you will not need to provide any identifiable information when registering an account. In addition, it will remove your IP address from your emails. its code is open sourced for everyone to examine.
This secure email service is one of the best options for those who don’t want to spend a fortune, or spend any money at all. That’s because it offers a free version that includes 1GB of storage. however, this plan supports only one user and has other limits; for example, it stores your emails for only four weeks. For additional features, like setting up encrypted calendars and unlimited email history, you can pay as little as €1.20 per month.
4. Guerilla Mail: The Best Temporary Anti-Spam Email
Guerilla Mail has been a popular anonymous email provider since 2006. It differs from the other secure email providers on this list, as it provides a temporal email address to send and receive email anonymously. You can either create the email address yourself or let Guerilla Mail do it for you if you’re in a hurry. You don’t even need to have an account to send messages, which makes things even more comfortable.
You can use Guerilla Mail when you want to sign up for a site but don’t feel comfortable using your real email address. in other words, you can use this email provider as a container for spam or when you don’t trust the sender.
The great thing about Guerilla Mail is the fact that it’s totally free: just go to their site and use the service. so far, the guerrillas have processed more than 13 billion emails, and the number is constantly growing.
visit the guerrilla mail
importance of email security and anonymity
Using a standard email provider, in most cases you’ll get decent service, but your privacy could be at risk. These services generate revenue from advertisements, and they need to know your browsing habits in order to personalize these advertisements for you. furthermore, the email metadata will expose your private ip address to anyone willing to see the x-originating-ip or original-ip lines. this will allow hackers (or the receiver) to find your city, state, zip code, internet service provider, and more.
