It would be less than ideal to have your readily identifiable (or any email that can be easily linked to your real identity) appear in a file dump containing tens of thousands of emails.Įspecially if that dump is from a service you’d prefer people didn’t know you used-whether that service was related to pornography, a support group for a mental health or medical issue you have, or anything else you wanted to keep private.īut that’s not the only way your email address can unmask information about you. No doubt about it, having the account data for a service you use leaked is a privacy problem that reveals your personal information to strangers and anyone out there mining leaked data dumps. Typically when people talk about serious privacy issues related to your email address or other kinds of logins, the focus is on data breaches, leaked information, and other high-profile problems.

Your Email Can Be Used to Identify Which Services You Use

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That’s a privacy nightmare, and you might be shocked to see how easily someone can use it to effectively stalk you and violate your privacy. Many people use their primary email to sign in to practically everything. Email aliases provide a way to secure against this privacy risk. Someone who knows your email address can use it to see if you have accounts with various online services.

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