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ZDNET's key takeaways
A burner email address can protect you against spam and phishing.
Use the burner address to set up an account at an unfamiliar website.
The burner address is temporary and disposable, so it's for short-term use.
You've come across a new website that you want to access, only to discover that you have to set up an account just to use it. That means exposing your primary email address to yet another site where it could be vulnerable. What's the alternative? You can always turn to a burner email address instead.
A burner email address is a temporary and disposable address that you create for one-time purposes or limited use with a particular website or service. By setting up access with the burner address, you avoid revealing your primary one. That's a particularly useful option for unknown or unfamiliar sites where your address could be exposed to certain threats.
Also: How to enable Private DNS mode on your iPhone - and why it's important to do so ASAP
Last year, more than 501 million unique email addresses were found among breached databases that popped up on the dark web, according to new data from NordVPN's NordStellar threat management segment. As a result of the data breaches, those addresses all became susceptible to spam, phishing attacks, and account takeovers.
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