How to use a trick to tell if you are a victim

Did you know that once you create a Gmail account, you have unlimited email addresses? I noticed this when I accidentally forgot the separator in my own e-mail address and the e-mail still arrived.

This knowledge gives you the power to fight back against Big Data!

The plus of infinity!

As long as you keep your original Gmail address, emails will always end up in your inbox. A missing period or dash before the @ sign is not a broken leg. However, Google’s mail service also lets you use one + add anything to the email address you want!

I tested this with my podcast email address and it was simple +bummer added.

The unmodified email address even suggested by Gmail.

The sender is the crux

So I got a message with a different email address read and let read + nonsense[at]gmail.com sent and lo and behold: You can see that the message did not go to the usual address:

But how does that help you against the resale of your user data?

Uses modified addresses when creating accounts

Do you create a user account on any site, say Instagram, then use a Gmail address that you modified for the site, for example, in the sign-up process hans.joachim+instagram@gmail.com. After all, emails always arrive!

If you now receive spam mails or advertising to this exact address, you know that your data has been passed on to third parties. If necessary, you then delete the account or warn others about the data octopus.

We’ll tell you how to protect your personal data from unauthorized access with these 9 tricks to make passwords more secure.

With a simple feature in Gmail, you can monitor whether pages have shared your personal information. Did you already know about the trick? Do you know any other such tricks that are worth mentioning? What email provider do you use if not Gmail? Feel free to write it in the comment column and discuss it!