how to hide your email address hide email address when sending email alias

How to hide your email address, including when you send

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read

Every form, shop and app wants your email address, and every one of them is a place it can leak, get sold, or end up on a spam list. Then there is the other problem: you want to email someone without them learning the address you use for everything else.

To hide your email address, give out an email alias instead of your real one. An alias is a separate address that delivers to your inbox, so the people you give it to never see your main address, and you can delete it if it starts getting spam. To hide your address when you send, send and reply from the alias. To hide other people's addresses on a group email, put them in Bcc.

Not every "second address" actually hides the first one, though. Here is how to tell, and how to set up the ones that work.

Three questions that decide whether a method hides you

Before you pick a method, ask:

  1. Can the other person work out my real address from it?
  2. When I reply, which address do they see?
  3. Can I switch it off without changing my real address?

A method that fails any of these doesn't really hide you. Here is how the common options score.

Method Hides your real address? Reply comes from Turn it off
Plus address (you+shop@...) No. Delete the tag and the real address is left. Your real address Needs a filter rule
A second, separate account Yes The second account Delete the account
A forwarding address Yes, for mail you receive Depends on the service With the forwarding service
An alias built into your mailbox Yes The alias Delete it from your settings

Why a plus address doesn't hide your email

Many providers, Gmail included, let you add a plus sign and a word to your address. Google's own example: if your address is cassy@solarmora.com, "use cassy+news@solarmora.com," and messages to it "all arrive in your current inbox." The format is a standard called subaddressing (RFC 5233).

It is handy for sorting mail, but your real address is right there in it. Anyone who gets you+shop@example.com can remove "+shop" and write to you directly, and spammers routinely do. Use plus addresses for filtering, not for hiding.

Option 1: use an email alias (the main fix)

An alias is a real, separate address that delivers to your inbox. You give each shop, app or stranger its own alias. If one starts getting spam or turns up in a breach, you know who leaked it, and you delete that one alias. Your main address never changed hands. It is the same idea we recommend in how to stop spam emails.

How to use aliases well:

  1. One per part of your life. One for shopping, one for newsletters, one for marketplaces and dating, one for accounts that matter. Banking deserves its own, as we explain in why you need a separate email for banking.
  2. Give it a neutral name. Something like a random string or a plain word, not your full name, if the point is that strangers can't connect it to you.
  3. Reply from the alias, not your main address. Otherwise your first reply undoes the whole thing. See the next section.
  4. Delete without guilt. An alias is meant to be disposable when it stops being useful.

Some phone and browser makers offer a version of this too. Apple, for example, describes Hide My Email in iCloud+ as a way to "generate unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal email account." Those are forwarding addresses, so check question 2 above before you rely on one for replies.

How to hide your email address when sending an email

This is the half most guides skip. Receiving on an alias is easy. Sending from it, without your real address slipping out, depends on your provider.

In a mailbox with built-in aliases, pick the alias in the From field when you write. When you reply to mail that came to an alias, the reply should go out from that alias too. Check one sent message by looking at what the recipient sees in the From line.

In Gmail, the "Send mail as" setting lets you add another address you own and pick it in the From field (Settings, See all settings, Accounts and import, Send mail as). Google's help page lists the catches itself:

  • Recipients on Outlook or another service "might see something like, 'From yourname@gmail.com on behalf of othername@otherdomain.com.'"
  • They "might also see your original @gmail.com address" if you set up an out-of-office reply, use a filter with an automatic response, or your mailbox is full.
  • If you change only the From address, "replies will go to your original Gmail address by default." You need to change the reply-to address as well.
  • Google also says that starting January 2027, Gmail "will no longer support the 'Send as' feature for third-party email addresses, such as @yahoo.com or @outlook.com."

So Gmail can send from another address, but it is not built to hide your Gmail one.

In Outlook.com, you can add another address to your Microsoft account as an alias. Note what Microsoft says about it: an alias is "another username" for your account, and "you can still use any of your aliases to log into your Microsoft account." So an Outlook.com alias you hand out can also work as a sign-in name for your Microsoft account. Keep that in mind before you give one to a stranger.

With a second account, you send from that account. It hides you fully, but you have one more inbox and password to look after.

How to hide other people's email addresses: use Bcc

If your search was really about a group email, where you don't want everyone to see everyone else's address, use Bcc. The email standard (RFC 5322) defines Bcc as the field for "recipients of the message whose addresses are not to be revealed to other recipients."

Put your own address in To, and everyone else in Bcc. Each person gets the message without seeing the list. Bcc hides the recipients from each other. It does not hide your address from them.

Hiding your email address on social profiles

LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube each have a contact or privacy setting that controls who can see the address on your account. The setting names change often, so look in each app's privacy or contact info section. The more durable fix is the same as above: sign up for those services with an alias, so the address on your profile was never your main one.

Aliases built into your inbox

In Secria Mail, aliases are part of your encrypted mailbox, not a forwarding service bolted on. You can create one or a batch, give each its own display name, send from any of them, and replies to mail sent to an alias go out from that alias automatically. If one starts getting spam, regenerate it for a fresh address or delete it for good. Mail to every alias is sealed with your keys and post-quantum encryption, tracking pixels are removed automatically and senders never see your IP address.

The free plan includes 2 aliases, with 1 GB and 3 folders, and needs no phone number or card. Mail Plus ($3.99 a month) has 15, and Pro ($9.99 a month) has unlimited. On paid plans you can also put aliases on your own domain, with a catch-all for addresses you never created.

Frequently asked questions

What is the easiest way to hide my email address?

Use an alias for anything you sign up for, and keep your main address for people you know. It takes a minute per site and protects you from the next breach or spam list.

Can I hide my email address in Gmail?

Not fully. Gmail's plus addresses still contain your real address, and its "Send as" feature can show your @gmail.com address to recipients, according to Google's own help page. A separate address or a mailbox with built-in aliases hides it.

Can someone find my real email from an alias?

Not from the alias itself, if it is a separate address and not a plus address. The usual leak is human: replying from your main address, or signing the email with your full name and contact details.

Is it legal to use an email alias?

Yes. Aliases are a normal feature of email. Using one to sign up for a store or a newsletter is no different from using a P.O. box.

What happens to mail sent to an alias I deleted?

It stops reaching you. That is the point: anyone who had that alias loses their way to you, and nobody else is affected.

Start with your next sign-up: give it an alias instead of your main address. If you want aliases in a private inbox, you can get Secria Mail free. For a look at what someone can do with your address once they have it, see what can someone do with your email address.

Sources

Secria fact-checks every post against primary sources. Spotted something wrong or out of date? Email hq@secria.me and we will correct it.

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