We all know the drill — signing up for a new service or product and being asked to provide an email address. It is such a common request that we often do not think twice about it. However, did you know that giving out your email address indiscriminately can be dangerous?
Your email address can serve as a digital breadcrumb for perpetrators or advertisers to track your activity across various sites and send you targeted advertisements — some of which could turn out to be malicious.
The dangers of giving out your email
Your email address contains a treasure trove of information about you. When you share it with an organisation, you are potentially entrusting them with your personal data, including your name, address, phone number, and other identifying information.
This raise concerns over data privacy as it exposes you to the risk of becoming a victim of cyber-attacks. According to Surfshark, in the first quarter of 2022 alone, over 18 million email accounts were breached worldwide.
Perpetrators can use your personal details to invade your digital privacy and commit phishing scams, identity theft, or even sell it on the dark web, resulting in severe financial losses and damage to your reputation. As cyberattacks intensify globally, it is crucial to remain vigilant to stay safe in the digital world.
Did you know… Based on a research by Blackcloak, online data brokers maintain more than three personal email addresses for each of their executive-level customers, and 95% of the executives’ profiles contained personal information about their family and relatives.
However, data brokers themselves are susceptible to cyberattacks. In 2021, data broker LimeLeads was hacked, resulting in the exposure of approximately 50 million business contacts on the dark web. Such data leaks exemplify the risks of mass scraping conducted by the data broker market.
