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Email privacy and security
How to protect your email: encrypting messages, checking whether your address was in a breach, spotting fake senders and keeping your number private.
Most email problems people worry about fall into three groups: someone reading your messages, someone pretending to be someone else, and your address leaking in a data breach. These guides cover each one in plain English, with what you can actually do about it.
Spotting fakes
- Email help
"We can't verify this email came from the sender"
What the Outlook unverified-sender warning means, whether the email is dangerous, and how senders make it go away.
- Email help
Is spam the same as junk mail?
What the words mean, why your email app uses one or the other, and where the word "spam" came from.
- For senders
What is BIMI?
How brands get their logo next to their emails in Gmail, Yahoo and Apple Mail, what it requires, and whether it is worth it.
- Email help
Who does this email address belong to?
Legitimate ways to find out who is behind an email address, what you can’t find out, and how to spot a scam.
Encryption
- Email help
How to send encrypted email in Gmail
What Gmail already encrypts, how to use Confidential mode, and when you need S/MIME.
- Email help
Most secure email providers
Proton Mail, Tuta, Gmail, Outlook and iCloud compared, what encryption protects, and how to lock down any account.
- Email help
How to report phishing emails
Report phishing in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and Apple Mail, where to forward it, and what to do if you clicked.
- Email help
Email bombing
Why your inbox is suddenly flooded, the scam it often hides, and how to stop it.
- Email help
What is privaterelay.appleid.com?
The random Apple Hide My Email addresses from Sign in with Apple: what they are and how to email them.
- Email help
How to encrypt email in Outlook
Exact steps for new Outlook, classic Outlook, Outlook.com and Microsoft 365, and what the recipient sees.
Your privacy
- Email help
Was my email in a data breach?
How to check if your email address or passwords were leaked, and the five things to do right away if they were.
- Email help
Free email without a phone number
Which email providers let you sign up without giving a phone number in 2026, and which always ask.
- Email help
Send an email anonymously
The honest options for sending email without your name or real address on it, and what can still identify you.
- Email help
Unroll.me alternatives
How Unroll.me uses your data, and free built-in ways to unsubscribe in bulk in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail.
- Email help
Gmail aliases and plus addressing
Free Gmail aliases with + and dots, how "Send mail as" works, why aliases stop working, and the 2027 change.
Questions people ask
- How can I tell if an email is fake?
- Check the real address behind the sender name, be wary of urgent requests and links, and paste the headers into an email header analyzer to see if it passed DMARC. See is this email legit?
- Is Gmail encrypted?
- Messages are encrypted in transit between servers that support TLS. End-to-end encryption needs extra tools. See encrypted email in Gmail.