Yes, that is a core aspect of how these “aliasing services” work.

You are able to simply hit the “reply” button, in which ever email provider the emails are routed to, and whatever you write will be delivered exactly like that to the person who sent you an email. From their perspective everything will look exactly as if they were talking to a regular email address.

This is a feature of both AnonAddy and SimpleLogin.

Regarding catch-all, that is basically also how I configured my usage of AnonAddy. Usually you would go and create a new alias, before you want to receive incoming mails on that address. All emails to aliases that are not already created will be dropped. But they also offer a, to me at least, superior version, where aliases are automatically created once the first email arrives on it.

This way you basically have a catch-all address, but with the benefits of being able to respond as all “identities”, as well as toggle off individual ones if you start receiving spam. If you read below, avoiding spam is my ultimate goal with all of this. Your use-case may be different.

I have written a small add-on for Firefox, which will automatically generate a random forename.surname@domain.com for me, and create that alias in AnonAddy with the current URL as a note. But yesterday I was checking in to a hotel, and the reception asked for an email, so I just typed hotel-name@domain.com, which will clearly indicate to me that it was created for that hotel only. The downside to this is that it’s easier to spot that it is indeed an alias address, but I’m also well aware of how spammers just buy active email-addresses in bulk, without caring about where the leaks come from, so I’m not too scared that it will stick out too much. You shouldn’t do stuff like facebook@domain.com or github@domain.com though. That’s gonna stick out like a sore thumb.

Thanks? lol

You are very active in your own topic. Feels like you genuinely care.

Now let’s switch the table, shall we? Which VPN do you use?

Yes, you are correct.

If you’re using your aliasing-service to “blend in the crowd”, just like how TOR works, you may not want to use a custom domain.

For me, the purpose of AnonAddy is first, and foremost, to help me combat spam. Any privacy improving aspects I see as purely bonuses.

I will use the shared domains from time to time though, if I consider the risks to be too high. This goes from posting an email in a public forum, to signing up for a particularly suspicious newsletter for one-time benefits.

As always, you should take your own threat model in mind.

Yes, correct.

I’ve done a lot of digging, and the only concern I’ve found is that the company is somehow connected to PureVPN.

I’m not paranoid, so for me this is fine. Take your own threat model into consideration.

Funnily enough, Ivacy knows basically nothing about me, since I bought the offer through a 3rd party site. I have nothing registered on my Ivacy account, aside from my email and password.

Ivacy VPN

Got a lifetime deal for 30 bucks.

Yes, it’s very useful.

I have my own domain, which I use with a service called AnonAddy. It allows me to generate unlimited unique emails on-the-go, which I can then toggle off if spam starts coming in.

I use a unique email for every single service I sign up to.

Now, you are able to do this without a custom domain, but then you are putting all your eggs in one basket, and if the domain(s) you used for signing up, suddenly aren’t being renewed, you will lose access.

Thats why I have my own domain for this. If AnonAddy goes out of business, I can just take my domain, and all my aliases, to another service, such as SimpleLogin for example.

http://www.dimeadozen.org/

Dime a dozen

I have had the same number for close to 10 years now. Been using it for everything. All sorts of crap. After the big Facebook leak in 2021, I’ve started getting flooded with robo-calls, which is something I’ve never had to deal with before, since it’s not a US number, but a small European one. I also signed up for some Crypto site, long ago, and my number has seemingly been sold over a couple of times, since I’m also getting those “You have an account with us with 9000 dollars worth of Bitcoin” scam calls.

I’ve been meaning to get myself an actual good number for a while, so I purchased one with a lot of repeating digits, which I’ve slowly been transitioning to for family and friends. I keep both numbers though, as I have so many accounts tied to the old one, that it’s very hard to keep track of. Sometimes I still encounter a site, which I used years ago, that asks me to verify the login via my phone.

And that’s why I still have it. Whenever a site asks to verify via phone, I will give the old number, which I already know has been breached multiple times. By doing this, I will keep my new number clean, and never give it out to an online service.

I’m just tired of the endless robo-calls, and as I’ll only need to be able to receive texts, I figured I might as well completely disable inbound calls.

My phone provider knew nothing about “Call Barring”. Bummer. Seems I will have to come up with some other solution to this.

Well, thanks again anyways!

Thanks, I will check it out!

Yep, yep, yep - Cheers!

Seems like I was looking for “Call Barring”, whatever that means. I’m stuck at the part where I have to enter a password (tried 0000), but I will get in touch with my phone company.

Thanks for the quick reply!

That is not possible, as Spotify only serves lossy files.

You will need to download from Deezer or Tidsl for lossless FLAC files.

Yeah, the sync can be a bit “effy” sometimes. I’ve noticed it with history and open tabs, probably affects newly-saved passwords as well.

Anyways, Lockwise worked good for me for many years, and its definitely better than nothing.

We all have to learn to improve.

2023 was the year I started my journey towards privacy as well. Protonmail and AnonAddy for email aliasing.

Doing this also made me switch to an actual password manager, instead of relying on Firefox to save my passwords.

I picked Bitwarden. Their track record seemed good. Price is also extremely fair. Its most likely a lot less than you were spending on LastPass anyways. Another notable mention is 1Password, though I have never used them myself.

Good luck!

This was me for the last 7 or so years. I still had the Lockwise app and everything.

I switched to Bitwarden half a year ago, and I’m very pleased with the transition.

I find it easier to manage with the add-on, and it allows for saving notes and attachments for each login. The built-in 2FA is godsent though. No more hacky solutions like Authy to get 2FA on my PC.

The original reason for why I switched, was because I was scared of my PC getting infected. If you store passwords in Firefox, they can be accessed from a file on the PC. If that’s not a concern for you, you can easily keep using it though.

LastPass is mpre known for being breached than being a password manager these days.

The last breach was brutal. Turns out notes weren’t encrypted either.

Please look up the breaches of LastPass. Such things are simply unacceptable for a password manager.