Hide Your Email Address to Cut Down on Spam

Consider an alias to use around the web and mask your online identity

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

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Published November 11, 2025

an illustration of a woman covering an email icon

Rob Dobi

AARP members and readers are invited to submit pressing technology questions they’d like me to tackle in my Tech Guru column, including issues around devices, security, social media and how all the puzzle pieces fit together. This week, I’m addressing a question on how to keep your regular email address under wraps when signing up for websites, newsletters and other services.

My email inbox is already cluttered with spam and junk mail. I wish I could subscribe to certain news sites, register for an event or get online shopping discounts without simultaneously exposing my actual email address. Is this possible?

We’re all fed up with spam and the barrage of marketing messages that flood our inboxes. But living with spam is often the price we pay to take advantage of the kinds of things you mentioned, including bargain deals at e-commerce sites, newsletters and mailing lists, and even when making restaurant reservations.

Spam often mushrooms because your primary email address is peddled to data brokers and other third parties that scoop up our personal information. Annoying ads we don’t want to see are one thing. It’s even more concerning if, as part of a data leak, hackers can exploit our email addresses with other information that helps them infiltrate our various accounts.

You have a few ways to somewhat shield your regular email address. While doing so won’t get rid of all the spam, it could help you stem the tide or, at the very least, get a better grip on managing it. It’ll also reduce the likelihood that you’ll receive phishing or other malicious emails.

Create an ‘alias’ email address

Think of email aliases as stand-ins that mask your primary email address. You won’t miss out on messages you may want to see, because mail sent to an alias address is forwarded to your primary inbox like any other missive.

Here’s an example of how it works. A merchant requests your email address before you can sign up for discounts. Instead of providing your personal email address when filling out the online form, you enter an email alias which, depending on the service you are using, you either create yourself or have randomly generated. You might only use that temporary email for a one-off transaction, or you might use it more broadly across various shopping sites.

Unbeknownst to the merchant, any emails they send to the alias address are directed to your designated personal inbox, or any subfolders you may create. Depending on the service you’re using, if you happen to reply to such messages from there, the recipient will remain none the wiser and think the alias address is your regular address.

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Among the benefits: If an alias or alternate address you’ve used results in an abundance of spam messages, you can simply deactivate it and start again. 

Plus, email aliases also give you a sense of where the spam originated. That’s because you can use a different alternative or alias email for each specific site, app or service you sign up for, something like edbaig-shoppinghere@xyz.com or edbaig-moviesclub@xyz.com.

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For illustrative purposes, here’s how you set it up on a desktop computer in Google’s Gmail, which, according to Statista, has the dominant market share among U.S. email providers. Let me quickly note that the following instructions do not work in the Gmail mobile app.

Navigate to Gmail on the web, and make sure you’re signed in to your main Google Account. Click Settings | See all settings.
Select the Accounts and Import tab, scroll down to Send mail as: and click Add another email address.
In the box that appears, enter the alternate email address you would like to use. Make sure it is an account you own and that the Treat as an alias box has a check mark. To help sort your mail, Google recommends adding a + followed by a category descriptor next to your regular address. If your primary email address is JaneDoe@gmail.com and you are signing up for a news site, you might give it an alias name like JaneDoe+NameofNewssite@gmail.com. Or, if shopping somewhere specific, perhaps JaneDoe+RetailStoreName@gmail.com.
Click Next Step.
When replying to a message, choose either Reply from the same address the message was sent to or Always reply from default address, which in the example above would be JaneDoe@gmail.com. You have the option to change the address at the time you reply. Keep in mind that the above method may be helpful for organizing and filtering mail, but it doesn’t completely mask your identity since part of your primary email remains visible. What’s more, as pointed out in a post on the Krebs on Security news outlet that was attributed to a cybersecurity consultancy called Hold Security, some threat attackers may scrub their distribution lists of aliases because they suspect the people who create them are more security- and privacy-focused.

Some sites won’t let you use the + sign as the email address you use to sign up for services because they insist on your primary email for marketing or security purposes. Sites that rely on older technology may also incorrectly flag + emails as spam.

Third-party email services can randomly generate alternate addresses

For extra security, consider email services that randomly generate and forward email aliases.

One notable option is SimpleLogin, now part of the Swiss privacy company Proton, which offers services including encrypted email and a password manager.

The free version of SimpleLogin allows you to set up to 10 anonymous aliases; for $36 per year, you can have unlimited aliases.

Other services, including Addy.io, Burner Mail, DuckDuckGo Email Protection, Fastmail, Firefox Relay and StartMail, offer free and paid options that allow you to mask your email address to a certain degree.

Hide your email via Apple

If you have an Apple account and a paid iCloud+ account (99 cents per month on up), you can take advantage of Hide My Email, part of Apple’s Sign in with Apple feature. Instead of signing in with the regular email you use for your Apple account, you do so with a randomly generated email address that is automatically forwarded to the inbox associated with your account, preserving your privacy.

Only emails sent from designated email addresses by the app or site will be forwarded to your verified email address, Apple says. The company adds that it cannot read or process emails that pass through Hide My Email, with the sole exception of filtering spam. Once delivered, such emails are deleted from Apple’s servers.

You can view and manage a list of all the unique random Hide My Email addresses that were generated and associated for each site and app. On the iPhone, tap Settings | Your Name |iCloud | Hide My Email.

On a Mac, start at the Apple menu at the upper left corner of the screen and click System Settings | Your name | Sign in with Apple. With an iCloud+ subscription, you can change the Forward To email address that you use.

Google is reportedly preparing a similar solution called Shielded Email, which will integrate with its autofill system, according to the Android Authority web outlet.

Bonus tip: An option to tone down the see-through Liquid Glass effect on iPhone

Last month, I wrote about Liquid Glass, the translucent display aesthetic on iPhones and other Apple products that has garnered a mixed reception. Some older individuals had trouble distinguishing between tab bars, notifications on the lock screen and other elements. I wondered whether Apple might modify its operating system to address the issue.

And now it has. A newly released iOS 26.1 software update for iPhone adds a Liquid Glass toggle in the settings that lets you either stick with the current transparent view, labeled Clear, which reveals more content beneath other visuals, or opt for Tinted, which Apple says increases opacity and adds contrast.

To fetch iOS 26.1, head to Settings | General | Software Update.

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Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune, and is author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn; Threads; and X, formerly known as Twitter.