An independent developer has created a great solution to a common problem regarding your online privacy when it comes to data leaks.
There seems to be a new hacking/data leak each week these days. The chances are, there’s some database out there somewhere that has your leaked email address and/or hashed password. When all this data is linked together, it’s easy to see how hackers or onlookers can see all of the accounts that you’ve signed up to as well as try those leaked passwords against your other accounts.
However, a developer by the name of Patrik Krupar decided that what people need to start doing is to start generating random email addresses, in the same way that many of us generate random passwords. This way, if ever your email address gets leaked, you still remain anonymous and no one can compare it to your other leaked account email addresses because you have a unique email address on every site.
Patrik said that he first got the idea for the project when he read a tweet from fellow developer Pieter Levels, about how a randomly generated email address should be used as well as a randomly generated password for better protection online:
Patrick’s idea comes in the form of an extension for Chromium-based browsers, that helps you generate random email addresses on the fly. It comes with a little tutorial that teaches you how to get set up with a domain that can allow such a feature, meaning that it’s not a service that hosts your emails for you – you get to keep full control of your email address and data.
In this case, having anonymous email IDs help. For doing so, you need to have, A—a domain name and that is owned by you which is completely unique and not related to your personal domains; B—ProtectID.
ProtectID is the name of the chrome extension that generates random sequences of words that go with your domain name as your email id. So for this to work, you need to configure a catch-all mail system at your domain, which is pretty simple and explained here.
ProtectID will be installed as your Chrome extension and whenever you’re in a situation wherein you have to enter an email id, you can instantly generate an anonymous email id and submit. The mail sent to your randomly generated temporary ID will be sent to your catch-all mailbox. This way, you have all your emails at a place.
Doing this might not greatly enhance the security of an average Joe. However, it helps in situations where you can avoid giving your primary id to websites that you suspect to spam you. Also, it’s useful in cases where you cannot trust a website enough to reveal your identity.
Finally, this tool is the latest addition in the arsenal that helps you in enhancing your privacy. Though it is not a must-have, it definitely adds up to making your online presence a tad bit more private, if you consider yourself to be someone that may be easily targeted online.
Learn more at ProtectIID.com
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