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I published an email masking service. Want to try it?

by JuliendeC

Hi,

This post is my first time starting a new post on IH and part of my learning journey.

I have been having issues with overflowing email inbox for quite a while (my gmail account is clocking 11,970 unread emails and growing daily). A post on HackerNews led me to think about how to be able to use a different email address when registering to different services, whilst keeping the convenience of not having to check 100s of different email addresses.

I set out to work on that problematic - and wrote a blog post https://betterprogramming.pub/implementing-an-email-masking-proof-of-concept-using-aws-simple-email-service-ses-and-aws-rust-c6aa34f1e1df describing how that can be achieved. After doing this, I realised that this technique happened to have a name: "email masking".

As I was already half-way through it, I turned the proof-of-concept into a small website that can work for me as well as others. I had a few close friends and family trying it.

It is now time for me to extend the audience - hence my post - to validate the concept. The website is https://www.1-ml.com/ - it is fully functional (albeit with basic functionalities in places at the moment).

I would be keen to hear feedback on the idea, pricing and, if you are willing to try and use it, its usability (and the missing features).

Thanks

JuliendeC's avatarJuliendeC
on September 10, 2022
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  1. 2

    I like the idea and initiative, but this is a privacy nightmare. :(
    If I'd use your service you would have access to all my emails that I send through your service. Not acceptable.

    How I have solved this:

    1. I follow "inbox zero" by automating, sorting, filtering, archiving and also unsubscribing from stuff, so that my mail inbox does not get a chance to overflow. Only during a busy week do I have more than 20-30 mails in my inbox, everything else is taken care.
    2. I used a wildcard setting on my mailserver on my primary mail domain, so that if you send me mail to whatever@mydomain.com, it arrives and is forwarded to my primary account.
    3. I use gmail accounts for mail masking and forwarding. Just get an account <anytextstring>@gmail.com and then use <anytextstring>+<domainofservice.com>@gmail.com as address and then you can easily filter, sort, automate etc your mail in Gmail for further handling.

    If you'd manage to find a way around the privacy issue with your service you'd definitely have a winner. Like this, not so sure.

    jansroka's avatar jansroka
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    4 years ago
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  2. 1

    What will be a main difference from iCloud Private Relay? :)

    Maybe for a higher usability a browser extension would be cool to automatically fill an email input with an email for your service.

    florianxolf's avatar florianxolf
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    4 years ago
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    1. 1

      Thanks a lot florianxolf.

      It is the same principle/logic as iCloud Hide my Email - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210425 - with a few small/minor differences...

      The main differences are that it is not tied the apple ecosystem and you chose the random part so that it stays meaningful to you.

      JuliendeC's avatar JuliendeC
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      4 years ago
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