How to send anonymous emails

Yes, you can be anonymous online. At least under the right conditions, but it’s not necessarily easy. Your everyday identity is constantly being tracked by accounts you’re logged into, and third-party advertising companies hoping to better target ads. That means your favorite browser is usually filled with trackers to keep tabs on what you’re doing online.

Plus, who knows what’s going on with your internet service provider, passive (or active) government data collection, and all kinds of other interlopers? The bottom line is you have to take deliberate steps to ensure a modicum of anonymity online.

That said, if all you want is an anonymous email account that no one in your professional or home life knows about, that’s not as hard. Still, all it takes is one slip up by logging in to the email account before you secure your connection, or accessing your non-anonymous identity at the wrong time, and your identity could be revealed.

This tutorial will walk you through the necessary steps, and depending on how far you want to take it, you can either use all of the advice within or pare it down to only the parts you need. We’ll explain why each step is necessary to help guide your decisions.

Step 1: Get an anonymous workspace

The best thing to do if you want to stay really anonymous is to have a separate digital work space that is only used for your secret identity. That way there’s no risk of crossover between your everyday accountant self, and your anonymous whistleblowing/Mr. Robot identity.

If you just set up an account using a regular browser on your everyday machine all it will take is someone nosing around in your PC and oops! there goes your anonymity.

Here are some options.

torlogo Tor Project

Level 1: Install the TOR browser on a USB thumb drive. If your stakes are pretty low (i.e. if your account is discovered it’s not the end of the world) then TOR running off a USB drive may be all you need. The TOR browser is a version of Firefox that connects to the onion router (TOR) network. This system passes your internet connection through multiple nodes (computers) before putting you on the open internet. When using TOR your real IP address is obscured. Plus, by default the TOR browser doesn’t save your browsing history, keeping your activity secret. To keep TOR as secure as possible check out the Tor Project’s tips on what to do to stay as secure and private as possible online.