The constant demand to create an account with every web site or app is annoying. As if this is not bad enough, it also puts your data at risk. You use your email everywhere, even when you only need this free WiFi for an hour or two. The data remains on the site and as we can see on sites like Have I been pwned?, it gets “lost” quiet often – and not only by small companies. Combine those leaked accounts with the fact that most people reuse their passwords and you end up with a serious security problem.
While you never should reuse your password, there is a simpler way to protect your data in services you must sign up but don’t intend to use for long: use a disposable email address.
Services like Mailinator (or Air Mail, MailDrop, 10 Minute Mail, Discard Email, etc) have a web interface to create email addresses on the fly and read the messages send there.
Attention: Those services aren’t a replacement for your email provider. Most services have no security what so ever implemented and will display those emails to everyone!
I like Mailinator because it is so simple to use. All you need to do is to visit Mailinator.com, enter the email address you like and click on “Go!”:
The same form will bring you to your inbox when you want to come back later. You can copy the email you just “created” and paste it into the form that demands an email address on the other side. Post that other form and return to the Mailinator page. As soon as the email is received you can see it in the web interface. Be aware, that other people can use the same address and as you can see their emails, so can they see yours:
The mail client is read-only and doesn’t allow you to send emails away. But for most use cases this will be all you need. If you need to click on a “verify email” link, then this simple interface is sufficient enough.
When you try to log in in a free WiFi you can do even a simpler way: Just enter a fancy name and end it with @mailinator.com. Done. And should you need to visit that mailbox, you find it on Mailinator.com.
The next time you need to add your email address, try it with disposable one. It’s so easy.