ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) —  Email, for all of its faults, is a necessary means to communicate. Chances are, your email inbox is filled with marketing campaigns we don’t care about, newsletters we never signed up for, and spam. 

Everywhere you go online, and even in the real world, someone’s asking for your email address. Rather than handing it out to anybody and everybody, you should have a dummy email address to protect yourself.

The biggest perk of a dummy email address is that it helps keep your main inbox free of clutter and stuff you don’t care about. 

That time you gave the kind salesman at the clothing store your email address at the register? You, no doubt, gave them permission to send you regular emails. And just try unsubscribing to a newsletter you signed up for by giving them your address.

Scammy websites not only use your address to send you stuff, but sell addresses they collect to other scammy websites. And if a cyber crook gets your primary email address, they might target you to steal your identity. And everyone’s email has been caught in a data leak.

If you get a dummy email address, use it anytime you’re asked for it by someone other than work or personal contacts. You can sign up for a new Gmail account. Yahoo and Microsoft offer free plans too. 

Check out Proton mail’s free accounts. Proton is more private than Gmail and protects your data from going to third-party companies. You might even want to switch your primary email to Proton.

Treat your primary email address as something special. Don’t give it out to just anybody. Use the dummy email address to protect yourself.