How To Send Anonymous Email Using Hushmail

how to:How To Send Anonymous Email Using Hushmail

Posted by Brannon Cullum in Email Advocacy, Stay Safe and Anonymous Online, Desktop Digital Security, Mobile Digital Security

Worried about sending an email from your personal account and wish you could send one anonymously? Look no further than Hushmail, a free and open source anonymous web-based email service. You don’t need to install anything to use Hushmail. Just sign up for a free account and you are ready to go.

Hushmail’s free email account provides 2MB of storage and an ability to send PGP encrypted email to anyone. PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy and provides both cryptographic privacy and authentication to secure your data. Cryptographic privacy is the art of protecting information by transforming it (encrypting it) into an unreadable format. Only those with the correct key can decipher/decrypt it into plain text, a readable format. Authentication is used to establish and confirm identification and association. All mail traffic is protected with HTTPS as well.

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Step 1.

Point your browser to http://www.hushmail.com/

Step 2.

Click on “Sign up for free email.”

Step 3.

Choose your new email address or let Hushmail automatically generate one for you. Remember, don’t include any personal information in your email address.

Step 4.

Choose your passphrase (password) for your email account. Create a strong password using a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers. Re-type the passphrase. Learn more about creating strong passwords by checking out our how-to guide.

Step 5.

Type in the numbers in the box for verification purposes.

Step 6.

Check the boxes that you have read Hushmail’s terms of service and are not using Hushmail for illegal services.

Step 7.

Click “Create account now.” You will then be directed to a confirmation page that your email account has been created.

Step 8.

Write down your hushmail email address and passphrase and store them somewhere safe.

Step 9.

Click on the button “To sign in now, click here.” You will be re-directed to the Hushmail homepage. In the upper left corner, you will see “Sign in to webmail.” Enter your full hushmail email address and click “Sign In.”

Step 10.

You will be asked if you want to upgrade to a premium Hushmail account. You can either go to your free account or pay for a premium account.

Step 11.

You will then be asked to provide the passphrase you created. Enter it into the box, then click “Authenticate.”

Step 12.

You will now be directed to your Hushmail email account. On the top of the page, you will see menu items:

Check Mail: Refreshes your account and checks for new mail.

Compose: Create a new email message.

Contacts: Manage contacts.

Spam Control: Manage spam.

Preferences: Set preferences. Note: This is where you can enter a name you want associated with outgoing email, add access instructions for external email accounts, change your passphrase, and export encryption keys.

Hushtools: Use Hushtools to encrypt and/or decrypt email messages, and create digital signatures.

Help: Find help for problems you are having with Hushmail.

Quit: Sign out of Hushmail.

Step 13.

Compose an email by clicking “Compose” at the top of your screen. A pop up window will appear where you can add the recipient(s)’s email address and compose your email.

Click “Send” when you are done.

Tip!

After composing your email, click “Message Options.” Make sure the box is checked next to “Encrypt Message” and “Sign Message.” If your message cannot be encrypted forthe recipients of your email, you can type a question and answer for your recipient. Your recipient will need to know the answer to your question to be able to read the email.