You can send a message to someone anonymously, without them knowing who you are. Here’s how it works.
How do we know that someone is anonymous? The person doesn’t have a public profile on the internet, and doesn’t use any of their social media accounts to identify themselves, or provide any personal information about themselves.
Some people might be worried that this could lead to harassment — but what if you’re just worried that your friend might accidentally post something they shouldn’t online? Or maybe you’re worried about your employer finding out that you’ve been talking to other employees in an attempt to undermine the company culture? Or you want to talk to a politician anonymously?
It’s easy and quick to set up anonymous email addresses, and in some cases, these emails will work even better than regular email. Let’s look at one example.
Let’s say you’re working with the government, as part of a campaign against corruption. You’d like to send out a message anonymously, but not so much that you’ll get fired. But you also don’t want anyone else to find out that you sent the message.
First, you create an anonymous email address, and sign up for a free account with Google Apps for Work. (In this case, you’ll need to have Google Apps installed on your computer.) Then you go into Gmail, click “Create new mail,” and then sign up for a free account. You should now see a screen where you can enter your name, and an optional password. If you don’t want to give a real name, you can choose “anonymous” instead.
Now, let’s say you’re writing a letter to your local representative. You want to make sure that no one finds out that you wrote the letter. So you log into your Google Apps account and click “Contacts.” Here you can change your contact info, and add a note that says “No email addresses on file.” This means that when someone types in your email address in the search box, it won’t come up — because there isn’t one.
And here’s another way to handle this. Google has a tool called “Contact Groups” which lets you create groups of contacts based on certain criteria. For example, you can create a group called “Friends Only!” And then, all of your friends will show up in that group, but none of your colleagues will. When you click on the group, you will see a list of names, but you won’t see any email addresses.
So then you write your letter — and you put it in a folder called “Personal Letters.” Now, whenever you write a letter, you can include a note saying “No email addresses on file.”
Next, you head over to Gmail, and click on “Settings.” On the left side, click on “Account Settings” and scroll down until you reach “Gmail – Privacy Controls.” Click on “Manage Contacts” and then click on “Add Contact.” Type in the email address for the person whose privacy you want to control (in this case, your representative). Then click on “Save.”
When you click on “Advanced Settings,” you’ll see a drop-down menu where you can select which categories you want to control. In this case, you want to check off “Private/Shared with me only” and “Public/Shared with everyone”. That way, your friend’s email address will show up in the list of friends and family members, but nobody else will ever be able to access it.
And finally, you want to add a note next to their name, saying “No email addresses on file.” If you decide to send a message, you’ll type in their name and click on “Send Message.”
Of course, using this method doesn’t guarantee anonymity. Some people may still figure out who you are through reverse IP lookup — although most people aren’t going to bother trying to track you down. And of course, you can always change your Google settings later.
The using of the Privnote proves to be the easiest and the fastest way of communicating with the people who are living at a distance. It is the most common reason most people prefer these websites. It makes the conversation effortless; using these websites, you can send messages in no time. The thing that matters for the people here is that they need to properly managed.
If you’re looking for more ways to stay anonymous online, check out our article about how to hide your location from apps.
And if you really want to learn how to send anonymous messages online, read our guide to anonymously communicating with strangers.
