How to Handle Web Sites Asking for Your Email Address

When you share your email, "you're sharing a lot more," warns the New York Times' lead consumer technology writer:[I]t can be linked to other data, including where you went to school, the make and model of the car you drive, and your ethnicity.... For many years, the digital ad industry has compiled a profile on you based on the sites you visit on the web.... An email could contain your first and last name, and assuming you've used it for some time, data brokers have already compiled a comprehensive profile on your interests based on your browsing activity. A website or an app can upload your email address into an ad broker's database to match your identity with a profile containing enough insights to serve you targeted ads. The article recommends creating several email addresses to "make it hard for ad tech companies to compile a profile based on your email handle... Apple and Mozilla offer tools that automatically create email aliases for logging in to an app or a site; emails sent to the aliases are forwarded to your real email address."Apple's Hide My Email tool, which is part of its iCloud+ subscription service that costs 99 cents a month, will create aliases, but using it will make it more difficult to log in to the accounts from a non-Apple device. Mozilla's Firefox Relay will generate five email aliases at no cost; beyond that, the program charges 99 cents a month for additional aliases. For sites using the UID 2.0 framework for ad targeting, you can opt out by entering your email address [or phone number] at https://transparentadvertising.org.

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