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by happybeing 1017 days ago
I have both my own non-identifiable domain which I use for email - and a domain of my own name which I picked up when the original owner let it expire. I had to bid to get it from a broker who squatted it but it didn't cost much.

My namesake was a famous (in some circles) wealthy person and I did start getting his emails. Quite a lot initially, and I replied to let the senders know.

That was probably twenty years ago and I'm still regularly invited to galleries for viewings as he obviously collected art. I gave up trying to get off those gallery mailing lists and now just bin them.

1 comments

> my own non-identifiable domain

I have one too, but realized that it’s kinda pointless. If it’s only you receiving emails at your domain, it’s clear that if you sign up for a Facebook account and a Google account and a shopping website, that it’s always the same person.

The advantage of big email providers is that it could be anyone. I just wouldn’t use Google.

Fastmail offers email redirects like the iCloud anonymization service.

I agree that's a possibility, but I'd rather the chance some of those accounts get linked than give my data to Google.

The reason I did that wasn't privacy in the first place, so any privacy benefits are a bonus.

I did it so I can easily block spam from a business, easily 'unsubscribe' to any list without jumping through hoops, and can also see which businesses are not playing nice by sharing my data.

I agree. I would use protonmail or something else for signing up for websites, as a domain would be linked to me (unless I buy dozens of domain names anonymously).

For Git commits or communication tied to my real identity, then yeah I'd use my own domain name. But for anonymity, nope.