Get a Free Email Account for Some Email Anonymity

You may feel that email service providers (ESPs) have no right to your personal information—that it's your right to send emails anonymously, and that anonymity protects your right to free speech. If so, here are some ideas regarding free email accounts, how to send a truly anonymous email, and a list of free email accounts that provide anonymity.

While you may consider sending email anonymously to be your right as an individual, if your message is a prank, a fake, or threatening, it can be considered fraud and run afoul of the law. If your message is commercial, then it is spam, and there are a bevy of federal laws, such as the CAN-SPAM Act, that preclude nonsolicited messaging and the distribution of obscene content.

If you want to send an email in a truly anonymous manner, you can send it through a chain of remailers that remove all traces that can lead to you. This works reliably and is extremely secure, but it is a tedious process—not something you'd want to do every day. Finding a reliable free email provider that promises anonymity is a much better choice.

Finding a free email account is no problem. There are plenty of them. Reliable free ESPs include Outlook.com, ProtonMail, Yandex, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and iCloud Mail. They are secure—some more so than others—but you enter personal details during the sign-up process, possibly including an additional email address that can be traced to you. The provider of the free email account can identify you.

The free ESPs that provide anonymity aren't household names, but they are out there if you know where to look.

• TorGuard offers both free and paid email accounts that provide anonymity with no ads or marketing. The free version gives you 10MB of offshore storage, end-to-end security using SSL encryption, and G/PGP encryption.
• GuerillaMail provides a free, disposable, self-destructing, temporary email address. No personal data is required. Use it once or until you see spam and then torch it. If you are on an Android mobile device, you can use the Guerrilla Mail app.
• 5yMail is another free service that lets you send email anonymously. The free service includes an advertisement at the bottom and email can be sent to only one recipient at a time. If you want a reply to your email or to attach files to emails sent to multiple users, you need to upgrade to 5yMail's paid service.
• CyberAtlantis sends your email anonymously, stripping off the IP address, so the recipient doesn't know who sent it. The site warns against using its service for abuses such as stalking, harassment, and death threats, but encourages its use by whistle-blowers, human right activists, and government persecuted individuals.

Most of these services have a disclaimer of some kind that warns against using the service for any illegal activities. Although you don't provide any of your personal information, the ESPs may record the IP address you use to access their sites, which could lead to you, particularly if you use a static IP address. One way minimize this risk to your anonymity is to use the service from a dynamic IP address or—preferably—a public IP address.