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Your Email Safety Toolbox

Your Email Safety Toolbox

Writers and their allies – whether journalists, authors, researchers, or librarians – rely on email as a crucial tool for connecting with readers, collaborators, and opportunities. Harassment, threats, and message bombing make it difficult for writers to use their email for their work, leading many to feel that they must choose between being abused or being disconnected. Use this toolbox to create an email workflow that fits your unique needs.

Sample Email Workflow

Many writers ask us how they can maintain public-facing contact information while also managing harassment sent to their email inbox. The following workflow is an example of one way to do this. 

  1. Set up a professional email address that is separate from your personal email address.
    1. If working on an especially sensitive project, set up an email address or alias email that is unique to the project (and can be isolated if it is targeted with harassment). 
    2. You can route multiple email addresses to one inbox if that is easier to manage.
    3. If you need to list a public-facing email, spell out the @ symbol (ie, write “XYZ[at]ABC.com” instead of “[email protected]”) in order to get less automated spam.
  2. Create a contact form on your website that directs traffic to the professional email address.
    1. You may be able to ask your university, publisher, or employer to set this up on your professional web page, in lieu of listing your professional email address.
  3. Create filters on your professional email address that quarantine harassing emails in a separate folder.
    1. If there are harassing or hateful terms that are frequently directed at you or your work, create a filter that directs emails with those words/phrases to a designated folder.
    2. If you do not have a personal history of harassment, but are concerned because others who share your identity or who write on similar topics have been harassed, you can still pre-emptively create filters for certain terms, such as slurs.
  4. At regular intervals, check the quarantine folder(s) and assess threats—or ask an ally to do it for you (more on that below).
    1. Consider delegating account access to a trusted contact who can help you monitor, review, and document emails.
    2. We recommend that you review quarantined emails before major work events such as speaking engagements, travel, publication of new work, or media appearances.
    3. If any of the emails contain threats that make you feel unsafe, we recommend that you reach out to your employer, support system, law enforcement, or lawyers.
    4. If you’re not sure how to assess threatening or hateful emails, here are some questions that can help.
    5. If you are planning an event, let all relevant event organizers know of any threats so that you can make a safety plan together.
  5. Document and report harassment
    1. Keep a folder, either in your inbox or on your phone/computer, with documentation of your email harassment. Documentation is important if you want to report your harassment to law enforcement or an employer, or venue, and it can also help you keep track of any escalation.
    2. If you feel the content you are receiving clearly crosses the line into harassment or threats, consider reporting it to your email provider, as well as blocking the sender, using platform tools.
    3. If the harassment is threatening or otherwise makes you feel unsafe, it is important to report it to your employer, publisher, colleagues, and/or law enforcement.
    4. Pirth.org, Access Now, and Expert Voices Together (specifically for journalists and scholars) can help create plans for navigating online harassment. To report cyberstalking, you can call the Anti-Violence Project’s 24/7 hotline at 212-714-1141 or reach them online at avp.org/get-help.
  6. Take care of yourself, seek support, and fine-tune your email safety workflow as needed.
    1. Don’t go it alone. Reach out to your community and be compassionate with yourself.

Email Safety Tools

Separate Personal and Professional. By having multiple email addresses for different purposes, you can better shield your personal email address in the event that your professional email address is targeted by a harassment campaign. 

  • We recommend having at least three email addresses – one for personal use (private), one for professional use (public-facing), and one for spam (ie, signing up for accounts, services, etc.)
    • Some writers create additional email addresses for specific projects or collaborators, particularly if they are concerned about harassment or surveillance connected to that work.
  • Consider where/if you list your email address
    • Never share your personal email address with anyone besides close, trusted contacts.
    • Be strategic about where/if you share your professional email. 
    • If you need to list a public-facing email, spell out the @ symbol (ie, write “XYZ[at]ABC.com” instead of “[email protected]”) in order to get less automated spam.
  • If having multiple email inboxes to manage sounds overwhelming, you can forward all of your email addresses to one inbox that you manage. If you do this, be sure to set up your inbox so that you can “reply from” multiple email addresses.
    • Here is a guide for how to set this up in Gmail
    • Here is a guide for how to set up a unified inbox in Outlook
  • Consider the privacy practices of your email provider. If you are working with especially sensitive information, consider using an encrypted email service such as Proton Mail. You can also use Mailvelope to encrypt messages on your existing email account.
    • See how to send and receive confidential emails on Gmail here
    • See how to send encrypted emails in Outlook here

Consider using a contact form. To prevent harassing emails, many authors, scholars, and journalists opt to use a contact form on their website instead of listing an email address. Since a contact form has multiple fields and takes time to fill out, it raises the bar for potential harassers and reduces the chance of receiving spam emails from bots.

  • Most popular website hosting platforms allow you to add a contact form to your website without having to code.
    • Services like Web3Forms or Jotform allow you to make a contact form if your website host doesn’t have the option built in. 
  • You can use filters to direct emails from your contact form into folders in your email inbox.

For extra privacy, use an email alias. An email alias masks your actual email address, adding an additional layer of privacy. An alias can be helpful if you are working on a temporary project that you are worried could be targeted.

  • Most email providers offer the option to create aliases, as do contact forms like Web3Forms 
  • Services like SimpleLogin and Fastmail also allow you to send and receive emails directly to your inbox, anonymously. 
  • You can also use a website like Temp Mail to create a throwaway email address that exists for one-time use.

Use inbox filters. Inbox filters are an invaluable tool for managing harassment. Not only can they quarantine harmful messages out of view, but they can also make it easier to use your inbox for its primary purpose. 

  • Use filters to sort emails into folders based on keywords, the sender’s email domain, and/or other factors.
    • If you are facing harassment containing certain frequently repeated words, you can filter messages with these words into designated folders.
  • Here are guides for setting up filters in Gmail or Outlook. 
  • Platforms such as Thunderbird can give you extra control over how you sort and tag emails, outside of your email provider.
  • If you decide to use email filters, set up a schedule to routinely check the emails that are filtered out of your inbox.
    • Consider asking a friend or trusted colleague to look through potentially triggering folders to flag any concerning threats or harassment.
    • Ask yourself if any of the abuse has made you feel unsafe. If you’re not sure, here are some questions that could help.

Disable external image auto-uploading. Most email providers will give you the option to disable images from auto-uploading to your inbox. In doing so, you’re reducing data usage and granting yourself increased control over what images you are viewing.

  • In Gmail, go to Settings, General, Images, then “Ask before displaying external images”. Here is the link to Gmail’s guide for the most recent information.
  • For Outlook, locate Trust Center Settings, and uncheck the checkbox for automatic picture downloads. Here is the Outlook guide for the most recent information.

Keep an eye out for phishing emails. Phishing emails are made to trick recipients into revealing personal information or otherwise engaging with a fraudulent email address. They exist in multiple forms, including lookalike emails pretending to be companies (for example, sending links with fake USPS tracking information), lookalike domain names (such as [email protected]), or impersonating someone you may know.

  • To identify potential phishing emails, start by looking at the full email address – do you know this person? Be cautious when sharing sensitive, personal information over email. 
  • Take the Shira Phishing Quiz to test your phishing detection skills.

Delegate email account access. If you experience a harassment campaign targeting your email inbox, you can “delegate access” for someone else to be able to read, send, and organize emails on your behalf. 

  • On Gmail, within the Google Workspace controls, you can enable “mail delegation” to create this access. Go to Settings, Accounts and Imports, then under “Grant access to your account,” you can add the address. Here are Gmail’s instructions for the most recent information.
  • In Outlook, you can grant folks access to folders and also permission to send emails on your behalf. Go to File, Info, Account Settings, then Delegate Access. Here is Outlook’s guide for the most recent information.

Document harassment. Documentation can help you to evaluate threats, keep track of repeat harassers, and notice if there is escalation. Save harassing emails in order to create a paper trail in the event that you need to enlist law enforcement, lawyers, or other forms of support.

  • Consider asking trusted allies to help by delegating access to them (see above).
  • Save emails in a folder in your inbox, or screenshot them to save separately.
    • Capture the email header that contains the IP address, a number that looks something like: “129.131.1.3”
  • If you are trying to document an email, do not forward it! Forwarding the email strips away tracking information that could be used in an investigation. 

Block repeat harassers. Blocking tools can be used to prevent a specific email address from contacting you.

  • On Gmail, open an email from the person that you’d like to block, click the more options button (with the three dots), and select the block button. Emails from this specific address will automatically go to spam. Here are more instructions.
  • On Outlook, in your settings, you should see a Junk E-mail Options button where you can add more blocked senders to a list. Here are more instructions.

Report harassment to your email provider. 

  • If the harassment is coming from a Gmail user, you can report the harassment by sending a message to abuse@ or postmaster@, using the domain where the abuse is coming from, or by using this form. Here is a guide to reporting spam in Gmail.
  • On Outlook, here is a guide for reporting suspicious emails or phishing attempts.

Do some data scrubbing. Despite your best efforts to minimize where and how you share your email address, it is still possible that it will get picked up by a data broker, especially if you have had the email for a long time. There are a few ways to opt out of data brokers and take your email address off the market: 

Practice self-care and seek support. Targeted harassment campaigns can be overwhelming and difficult to manage.  

  • Create distance between yourself and your inbox in whatever way serves you best – whether it’s going on a walk, taking deep breaths, or only checking your email during a designated, intentional time. The Free Mindfulness Project collects free-to-use exercises online.
  • Gather your support system. Harassment often causes people to feel isolated. Think about local allies, people, groups, or organizations that you can ask for help, whether for emotional support or technical expertise.

Additional Resources