Email Security and Privacy

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This post is a guide about email security and privacy. In the past decade with services like gmail, google, google maps, google chrome, youtube, etc. One sometime wonders why is everything free, how are we paying for these services. We are paying with data. I'm not here to debate whether google or another conglomerate is evil, I'll let you make that choice.

What's in the name?

Your email name should never contain important dates. Often you see Melissa1983, John0813, etc. If you want better privacy it should not contain your full last name, but you decide how far to go. Both of these are tools hackers can use.

John.Smith@mail.com
John.S@mail.com

Passwords

Never use an easy password, like password1234. Automated attacks prey on easy passwords. Email password should be something strong preferably managed by a good password manager. It should also have MFA enabled.

Private communication

Certain services can hide your email such as github by using an email alias private-user@users.noreply.github.com. This is an extra nice layer of security. You can also use pgp encryption but this is something your average user will probably skip. (Thunderbird email client with enigma)

Who's reading my email?

Recently we've seen Google, Facebook, and several FANG companies come under scrutiny as they are data mining your data with the excuse that you are agreeing somewhere in the terms and conditions when signing up for services or downloading apps. You'll often see targeted ads after you made a google search.

I'm not telling you to switch but I'm saying make a wise decision when it comes to your privacy. There are services like ProtonMail, TutoNota, etc which is a private email. Let's say that one more time, a private email. Not an email which is tied to a whole ecosystem like a gmail account.

Email Layering

I wish I practiced this since I started using email back in early 2000. The idea is simple. Use different emails for certain things.

John.S.finance@mail.com # bank, never store cc on sites!
John.S.junk@mail.com    # stuff that doesn't use personal or bank info
John.S.dev@mail.com     # dev stuff

You can go one step above and instead of junk or dev just create a random 8 character then make a rule in your email to send that email to a certain folder.

John.S.98234234@mail.com

Note: Some email services let you forward emails to one account, others have email aliases. It really just depends on how you want to handle this.

Layering email accounts will make sure your main account stays clean with less spam.

Discuss

• How are you keeping your email private?
• What email service do you use?