Absolute online anonymity is impossible since everything you do online leaves a digital trace (or a footprint). However, there are steps you can take to enhance your privacy when sending emails to prevent them from being easily traced back to you.
What is an anonymous email?
An anonymous email is an email where the sender’s address and personal identifying information (PII) are not visible to the recipient. When you send a message, there is typically an email header that includes the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the location from which you are sending the message. However, an anonymous email will hide this information.
Reasons to use an anonymous email
People use anonymous emails mainly for privacy and to protect their credentials. Of course, the reasons why they need privacy in the first place differ. Here are some reasons why online anonymity is important when sending an email.
Increase online privacy
Emails are one of the most leaked personal details on the web. They are used in phishing scam attempts, user tracking, and spamming. These are enough reasons for a person to hide their email address and make their online credentials private.
Avoid spam
When you’re using your real email for online sign-ups, it’s a matter of time until your inbox fills up with marketing spam. If you’re using an anonymous email (or an email alias) online, marketers will send their spam to that email instead of your real one, reducing the potential for future spam.
Check out our comprehensive guide on how to keep spam emails away from your Android phones.
Avoid tracking
Marketers and certain governments may use email metadata for profiling, surveillance, and user tracking. Logging in to platforms with your email address also lets tech companies know what other services you use and allows them to track you across platforms. To enhance your privacy, consider using alternative email addresses — and be cautious about where you share your primary email!
Whistleblow
Having an anonymous email helps you safely report unethical behavior, corruption, and other issues without risking your wellbeing or putting a target on your back.
Conduct investigative journalism
Being a curious journalist often involves notoriety, which sometimes leads to journalists being monitored. Anonymous emails help gather information without revealing their identity and protect their contacts.
How to send an anonymous email
There are a couple of ways to make your email more anonymous:
- Use a virtual private network (VPN) or Tor to hide your IP
- Use an anonymous email provider and create an account
- Use a temporary phone when signing up for an email
- Strip metadata from attached files
Of course, using all these methods at once should yield the best results.
Use a VPN or Tor to hide your IP
All email messages have a header that reveals the sender’s IP address. You can’t change the header but can change your IP using a virtual location changer, such as a VPN or the Tor browser.
A VPN encrypts your online connection and routes your traffic through a VPN server, changing your IP address to the VPN server’s address. Tor similarly changes your IP — it encrypts and routes your traffic through several Tor network servers (nodes) and assigns an IP belonging to the last exit node.
Interesting tidbit: A case where using Tor and an anonymous email address didn’t help.
Use an alternative email
To send an anonymous email, you’ll need to create an email account that’s not tied to you. You’ll be asked to provide personal details and a backup email. Alternative ID generates an online alias and email. Use them both for sign-ups and anonymous messages tied to the alias details.
Use a temporary phone when signing up
You can send an anonymous message by creating a new email address without using your personal credentials.
When creating an email account, you may be asked for a number to verify your signup. Using your real phone number isn’t very anonymous, so bear in mind that using a temporary phone is an option.
Remove metadata from attached files
Sometimes, the message’s attached files can reveal your PII — metadata. For example, a picture’s metadata may show your camera equipment, the location, and time the picture was taken.
Here are some guides for the most common items sent over email:
How to remove metadata from iPhone photos:
When uploading from your gallery to an email app, select Options at the top of the screen and tap Turn Off All Photos Data.
How to remove metadata from Microsoft Word (Windows) documents:
- Open the document in Microsoft Word.
- Click File and Info.
- Click Check for Issues and Inspect Document.
- In the Document Inspector dialog box, check the boxes for the types of metadata you want to remove.
- Click Inspect and then Remove All next to the inspection results for each type of metadata you want to delete.
- Save the document.
How to remove metadata from Microsoft Word (Mac) documents:
- Open the document in Microsoft Word.
- Click on Tools and Protect Document.
- Check the box stating Remove personal information from this file on save.
- Save the document.
How to remove metadata from Adobe Acrobat Pro PDFs:
- Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
- Go to Tools, choose Redact, and click Remove Hidden Information.
- Then click on Sanitize Document to remove metadata.
- Save the document.
How to remove metadata (EXIF data) from images on Windows:
- Right-click the image and select Properties, then click the Details tab.
- Click Remove Properties and Personal Information.
- You’ll get three options — remove some of the metadata, remove all, or create a copy of the image without metadata.
How to remove personal info from a file on Windows 11:
- Right-click a file and select Properties.
- Select the Details tab at the top of the newly opened window;
- Click Remove Properties and Personal Information;
- At the top of the window, click Remove the following properties from this file.
- Select the data type you want to remove from the file and click OK.
Note: Not all files have the same metadata attached, and some steps may differ or not be available depending on your Windows version and the type of file.
How to remove location metadata from images on Mac:
- Open a photo in Preview.
- Go to Tools and click Show Inspector
- Switch to the Information button then click the GPS tab
- Click Remove Location Info
Note: Not all images have metadata attached, so some pictures may not display the GPS tab because they don’t have that info.
When it comes to Mac, some metadata removal, EXIF especially, requires help from third-party apps like MetaImage.
Food for thought: A Redditor by the name of rhymes_with_ow shares their insight on this Privacy thread:
Keep in mind, the most likely way you are going to be identified or suspected is not over the technical details of the way you send your message but over how small the circle of people who know the information is. Be much more careful about providing details that only you might know, for example.
Why choose Surfshark’s Alternative ID
Using Alt ID with Surfshark’s VPN turned on can help you stay private online. With Alternative ID, you can anonymize your personal information by using your Alt ID details to fill out website forms or sign up for newsletters. While there is no such thing as 100% anonymity, Surfshark helps you better protect your identity.
Alternative ID comes with our VPN at no extra cost and acts similar to what you may think of as a burner email but with more benefits. Surfshark’s Alt ID generates an alternative email and an online persona with info like first and last names, date of birth, address, etc.
All this info can be used as stand-ins for your actual data, keeping it private. The alternative email masks your real one and forwards all messages to it.
Also, if you pay a little extra, you can get an Alternative Number (part of Alternative ID), which generates a virtual number that you can use for online signups and listings. It works like your phone’s alias — all calls and SMS messages sent to the Alt Number will be redirected to the Surfshark app on your phone.
Suppose you use these Alt ID credentials when signing up for an email service. In that case, the emails you create are anonymous since they no longer can be traced to you (as long as you strip metadata from the files you send and don’t mention your real identity).
*Bear in mind that complete online anonymity is impossible, but Surfshark has tools to help protect its users’ identities.
The final word — use all privacy tools at hand
The best way to keep your identity hidden and send an anonymous email is to use all the privacy tools and practices mentioned above — use an alias, change your real IP address, and don’t leave essential metadata attached to the files you share. Most of these tools can be found under one service: Surfshark.
FAQ
How can I send an email without showing my sender name?
You can use a temporary or disposable email address and an alias to send an email without revealing your name.
Is it legal to send an anonymous email?
Yes, sending anonymous emails is legal, but emails used for unlawful activity could be considered illegal.
How do you send an anonymous email in Outlook?
You can send an anonymous email by creating an Outlook account using fake personal credentials (Alternative ID) and using a VPN. Remember to remove all metadata from the attached files to the email before sending, and to turn on a VPN before using Outlook.
How do you send an anonymous email in Gmail?
To send an anonymous email using Gmail, create a Google account that’s not associated with you and use a VPN to change your IP address while using Gmail.
How do you send an anonymous email from an iPhone?
You can send an anonymous email using the Hide My Email feature on iPhone. When creating a new message, double-tap From and choose Hide My Email. A new email should appear instead of your real one — this one will be shown to the recipient.
