Gmail subscription addresses

Many years ago, an IT colleague of mine suggested that I use a unique email address using a non-letter character so that - if my gmail got hacked - I would be able to identify which of my subscriptions linked to the database which had been hacked. What a great idea!

Ah. But I forgot what the character was, so I couldn't do it. Then I never got around to asking about it again. That colleague is now living on Vancouver Island, and it is not something I tend to remember to ask about when we reconnect!

However, in a post last year, Jack Wallen of TechRepublic detailed just that tip, and it is just as simple as I remembered. We only need add a plus to our email address. So if our gmail address is:

janedoe@gmail.com

And we want to subscribe to The Times, our address would become - just for this ONE subscription: 

janedoe+times@gmail.com

We create a new sub-address for each of our subscriptions: +guardian, +spinoff, etc. While it takes a bit to set up, once our addresses - and our address habit is created, it is no problem to manage. 

Further, if we get an apparently hacked message or email, we know exactly whose database has been hacked due to the "+times" in the return address. We only need dump that one email address, advise the sender, and create ONE new subscription email.

Quite a nifty trick.

Sam

Reference: Wallen, J. (23 August 2021). How to gain unlimited Gmail addresses with this simple hack. TechRepublic. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-gain-unlimited-gmail-addresses-with-this-simple-hack/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=40778246&mid=13485079&cid=712410359