Plus addressing: useful, and easier to strip than you think
27 July 2026 · 4 min read
Most providers ignore everything after a plus, so you+anything@example.com reaches you@example.com. It is genuinely useful for filing and for spotting who leaked an address.
Where it falls down
- Stripping the tag is one line of code, and list brokers do it.
- It reveals your real address in the same string.
- Plenty of signup forms reject the plus character outright.
- You cannot switch one off. The mail keeps arriving.
That last one is the difference that matters. A tag tells you an address leaked; an alias lets you do something about it. Use plus addressing to organise mail you expect, and aliases for addresses you hand to other people.
More on privacy
Most disposable email is not private at all
On many throwaway-mail sites, anyone who types your address can read your inbox. That is not a bug in those products, it is how they are built.
What a masked email alias actually does
An alias is not a second mailbox. It is a valve on your real one, and understanding the difference tells you when it helps and when it does not.
One-time codes are not secret in transit
A six-digit code sent by email is protected by your mailbox, and by nothing else along the way.