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September 9, 2013

MailDrop – Thwart Marketers With a Private Email

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Unsolicited telephone calls are being replaced by emails in the telemarketing community, and consumers aren’t necessarily happy about the change. Companies frequently sell their customers’ email addresses to marketing firms, and those firms bombard consumers with unnecessary email pitches. MailDrop is a tool that people can use to keep their email inboxes private from solicitors.

Stop giving away your email address every time a mobile app or e-commerce website asks for it. When you sign up for MailDrop, you’re given a free, temporary, throwaway address for times when you don’t want to give out your real email. Get one of these temporary addresses by visiting the MailDrop website. You have the option to create an address from scratch or choose from one of MailDrop’s suggestions. Once you’ve gotten your MailDrop address, you can give it out during the sign-up process for any mobile apps or websites. Come back to MailDrop to get your receipts or access codes (when signing up for apps, for example). Once you’re comfortable with the website or app you’ve signed up for, and you feel confident that the sites aren’t going to sell your information, you can give the companies your actual email address.

Unlike traditional email accounts, MailDrop has strict spam filters that block emails longer than 100k in length, along with any attachments. Inboxes can only hold 10 messages at a time, and any inbox that hasn’t received a message in 24 hours is automatically cleared. Messages from email servers that are flooding MailDrop are automatically blacklisted, protecting users from unwanted emails from solicitors and marketers.

Practical Uses:

  • Protect your personal email account
  • Give out a disposable email address to untrustworthy people
  • Save time by getting less junk mail in your inbox
  • Prevent spam messages from clogging up your email account

Insider Tips:

  • Email servers with bad reputations are blocked from sending messages to MailDrop
  • Only plain text or HTML emails are allowed
  • All email attachments are removed before arriving at MailDrop inboxes
  • MailDrop doesn’t allow email messages that have to do with illegal activities

What we liked:

  • Inboxes never expire
  • Strict filters weed out most spam messages before they arrive in a MailDrop inbox
  • People can create as many throwaway email addresses as they want
  • MailDrop inboxes don’t have any passwords for people to remember

What we didn’t like:

  • Some people may not want to use a throwaway email for online purchases, in case the retailer sends private billing information to that email account

Alternatives:

Company Info:

Costs:

  • Free

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