iCloud Email Alias Strategy

[impaler]

Hi all,
I've been thinking much about what email addresses I have out there on various websites, registered for this and that, and the fact we leave so many bread crumbs behind over the years. I wanted to start to use aliases in an organized and smart way, including the use of + addresses (which I confirmed work great).

For those of you who have adopted an alias strategy, I'd like to hear how you've implemented it.

For me, so far, I'm thinking of a number of scenarios, all of which may call for different aliases:
- Public sites, where my email will never be shared (use an alias)
- Friends, family, those whom I know and trust (use my real email)
- Shopping and purchasing stuff - where my email will never be shared (alias)
- Signing up for newsletters and for occasional information (another alias)

 

[Rigby]

Just keep in mind that spammers have learned about the "+" aliases by now (Gmail and Outlook.com support them too), and mass emailing tools routinely strip them. So don't use that for accounts with a high spam risk.

 

[impaler]

Just keep in mind that spammers have learned about the "+" aliases by now (Gmail and Outlook.com support them too), and mass emailing tools routinely strip them. So don't use that for accounts with a high spam risk.

Good to know.

I've decided to use my main alias and use a different "+" address for each one (at least for sites that accept the + addresses). So for this forum, for instance, I use XXXX+macrumors@icloud.com.

I now have a second alias in case the first one gets really spammy. Then I can change the email on that site to the second YYYY+macrumors@icloud.com address. It's a lot of work to set up, but it's mostly done now. The key and goal for me is getting my real @mac.com address off the Internet as much as possible (even though by now I've left tons of breadcrumbs I'm sure). It will also help me understand who is spamming me and who is not. For instance, if a I get spam from this address but not from Macrumors, I know they've shared it with a spammer, or a bot lifted my address somewhere. By the way, not saying this site would do that!