By KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — You’ve heard of burner phones. What about burner email?

So much of the internet now requires that you hand over your email address before you’re able to use any services — from an app you’ve downloaded to signing up for a newsletter or redeeming a special offer online.

But who says you have to give your real email address? Next time you’re asked, consider using an email mask.

There are a growing number of services that give out disguised email addresses and relay any messages to your actual address. Experts say this can be a powerful tool to safeguard privacy and security.

Here are some pointers on the whys and hows of email masking:

Mask on

The idea behind email masking is simple. The masking service gives you a randomized address you can use as a decoy instead of your actual email. It can be a series of unrelated words, or a string of letters and numbers. When someone sends a message to the burner email, it will be automatically routed to your address without anyone knowing.

Providers include privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection service, Firefox Relay from browser maker Mozilla, email service FastMail and independent services like Addy.io. The encrypted service Proton Mail offers email masking with its password manager and standalone SimpleLogin service. There are many others.

It’s one of the features Apple offers users subscribing to its iCloud+ or Apple One services. When you’re using the Safari browser app on your iPhone and need to input your email, you can tap the field above the onscreen keyboard to “Hide My Email,” which then creates a random address as a substitute.

It’s also available on Mac computers with the desktop Safari browser or Mail app. If you’re using a different browser or app, you can still manually create a random email address by going into your iCloud settings.

A Key Feature

Most services have a free version with basic options and a premium tier with more features.

Some free services can only receive emails but not reply to them. However, an important feature users should look for is the ability to do both, said Proton CEO Andy Yen.

“Maybe you never reply to a newsletter and that’s fine,” said Yen. But it’s a problem if, for example, you used your email alias to buy something online and there’s an issue with your order that the site needs to ask you about.

“Then the ability to reply is actually pretty important,” he said.

Most masking services have a dashboard control panel where you can view the various alias addresses you’ve activated. If you notice one starting to get a lot of spam, just turn it off.

When should I use it?

Mask your email when you want to add an extra layer of privacy or protect yourself from data leaks or unauthorized information sharing.

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An email mask is a “general-purpose tool that can be used in any context,” says Santiago Andrigo, principal product manager at Mozilla.

However, he recommends using it in two key situations. The first is when you’re unsure what a website will do with your email address.

“Masking your email gives you control — if you start receiving unwanted messages, you can easily block any emails coming to that email mask,” Andrigo said.

The second scenario is “when your association with a service could reveal sensitive personal information,” he said. For example, if you join an online community for a specific medical condition or a minority group, a data breach could expose your participation.

Email fail

There are myriad reasons not to give out your email address to anyone who wants it.

It could be sold to marketers or shady data brokers, eroding your privacy by helping them build a profile of you for legitimate or nefarious purposes.

If your address ends up on the wrong mailing list, it could result in more junk or phishing emails. And if an online service is hacked, attackers could make off with logins, passwords and other personal information.

Using unique passwords for all your online accounts — typically with the help of a password manager — is good cybersecurity practice. “But the real pain point for any user is actually not the password getting leaked, but actually the email getting leaked,” said Yen.

Changing your password after a data breach is standard practice but it’s a lot harder to change another piece of sensitive information, your email address — unless you’re using a mask.

False solutions

There are other so-called hacks that you might have heard about.

You could set up a throwaway account with a free email service like Gmail or Yahoo. But it’s tedious to do this.

Some Gmail users add a plus sign and an extra phrase or combination of characters between their username and the @ sign. It helps track who’s sharing your address as well as filter messages.

But “from a privacy standpoint, that does nothing,” said Yen. “Because people can just simply take away the plus and get your original address.”

What about the man in the middle?

Email masks use their servers to relay message traffic between the sender and the recipient. So how can you be sure those servers are private?

Look for reputable providers that promise not to keep your messages. If you’re shopping around for an email masking service, Yen advises checking if it has “proper terms and conditions,” a privacy policy and is based in a jurisdiction where it could be legally held accountable.

“We state very clearly we’re not keeping a copy of anything that passes through our servers,” Yen said.

Firefox Relay says in its FAQs that it does not “read or store any of your messages.”

“In the event that an email cannot be delivered to you, we will keep it on our servers and delete it after it has been delivered (in no event will we hold onto it for more than three days),” it says.

Apple says it “doesn’t read or process any of the content” in email messages that pass through Hide My Email except for standard spam filtering.

“All email messages are deleted from our relay servers after they’re delivered to you, usually within seconds,” the iPhone maker says.

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, Calif. contributed to this report.

Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.

Waging war on Denmark is wrong and will damage U.S. defense and foreign relations for decades

We Americans should be ashamed of ourselves and of our government. Stealing Greenland from Denmark by military force or the threat thereof is criminal under international law. It is immoral. Doing this to one of our closest allies, one always generous in aiding our defense and that sacrificed lives fighting for us, is outrageous. Donald Trump and Elon Musk initiated this, but we as citizens offer few objections. Politicians who should understand the issues are mute.

Consider the key fact that relative to national populations, as many Danish soldiers died fighting our war Afghanistan fighting as did Americans. Trump and Musk say controlling Greenland is somehow necessary for defense, a view never advanced in military circles before now.

Why not?

Because Denmark has allowed the U.S. to freely operate dozens of military facilities in Greenland starting in World War II and continuing to the present. These included several U.S. Air Force bases, including two large ones with nuclear bombers and aerial refueling tankers. We based nuclear-tipped Nike missiles on the island, operated four Dew Line radar bases and ran a naval support facility. When a B-52 with four nuclear weapons crashed in 1968, some 700 Danish civilians worked without personal protective equipment on a cleanup of scattered radioactive material. Yet 20 years later we stiffed 200 of them who sued for damaged health.

This is not a mere issue of differing opinions. It is a deeply moral one but also has practical implications for our place in the world going forward.

Are we as a people entirely ungrateful to others who sacrificed for us? Can we thus ever be trusted? Will we keep promises? Will we uphold treaties that 14 U.S. presidents made over eight decades?

Moreover, since it is clear that the whole impetus comes from the desire of Musk, a manufacturer of electric cars, to gain control of rare earth minerals, the world knows that blatant corruption now drives U.S. defense and foreign policy.

Why is no one speaking up?

Rudy Boschwitz long was a key member of the Senate Relations Committee. He knows attacking a small ally harms our position in the world. What about Arne Carlson, proud of his Scandinavian Heritage? What about Tim Pawlenty, thoughtful and moderate? None are in any danger from Trump. Why are all lips sealed?

Not only GOP leaders show moral obtuseness. Why isn’t Amy Klobuchar calling for sanity? Tina Smith is not running again. Why is she silent on this issue?

Moreover, if GOP Reps. Finstad, Emmer, Fischbach and Stauber really think that destroying  NATO is good policy, then why don’t DFL Representatives Craig, Morrison, McCollum and Omar protest twice as loudly?

I am not the only veteran who knows the importance of common defense of democracy against aggression. Over decades, hundreds of Minnesota Guard and Reserve members have trained with Danish comrades. Some served with them in Afghanistan. Why do none protest?

Many of us have friends named like Pilegaard or Jamtgaard. We have been to Aebelskiver celebrations in towns like Tyler, Ruthton, Dovray or Askov. Thousands of Minnesotans have Danish roots. Millions of us are their friends and relatives. Why such silence?

Americans have a curious faith that we can offend and always be forgiven. This time we are wrong. Our silence tacitly approves immoral actions that will harm our nation’s vital interests for decades going forward.

St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

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Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s pressing problems on the battlefield and President Donald Trump’s brazen unpredictability have done what no other combination has done before: shocked Europe out of its peace dividend slumber. An increasing number of European leaders are now asking themselves whether the Continent can afford to do business like it did in the three decades since the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. As French President Emmanuel Macron observed with trademark dramatic flair weeks ago, “It’s quarter to the midnight.”

There is an emerging acknowledgment among Europeans that they’ve been sitting on their behinds for too long assuming the U.S. will be perfectly willing to keep the barbarians from breaching the walls. Americans have tried to disabuse them of this notion for decades — in 2011, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned NATO allies that it would be difficult to maintain U.S. support for the alliance if the burden continued to fall on America’s shoulders. But the Europeans didn’t really take the issue seriously until a revanchist Russian leader by the name of Vladimir Putin brought war back to the region.

So it’s only fair to ask: Is Europe casting old assumptions aside and stepping up to the plate? The answer is muddled.

On the positive side of the ledger, European policymakers are moving at a relatively fast pace, which is quite impressive given the typically slow churning of Europe’s arcane bureaucracy. Germany, a country that traditionally favors social spending over national defense and is almost immovable out of its comfort zone, now resembles a country in a hurry. Last week, incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz, working with the very political party he defeated in February elections, managed to change Germany’s constitution to loosen the country’s debt break, which constrains discretionary spending. The next German government will now be able to increase its defense budget and rebuild the dilapidated Bundeswehr without having to worry about strict deficit laws.

The European Union is doing something similar. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out a series of new initiatives to bolster the Continent’s military capability. A big part of this involves joint purchasing, allowing the EU bureaucracy to negotiate weapons contracts on behalf of its members in order to get the best price and minimize duplication. But by far the most innovative is a provision exempting defense spending up to 1.5% of gross domestic product from the EU’s strict fiscal rules. If taken advantage of, this could add an additional 650 billion euros to the EU’s total defense spending.

But it’s not all good news. For starters, there is still some division on Ukraine. Europe generally speaking is on Ukraine’s side, wants a settlement to the war to be as close to Kyiv’s preferences as possible and isn’t wiling to explore a detente with Moscow until the war is over. But not all European countries are singing from the same song sheet. Disagreements persist on how much support Ukraine should receive. This was illustrated during an EU summit last week, when the bloc’s foreign affairs chief was unable to get consensus on a 40 billion-euro military aid package to replenish the Ukrainian army’s stockpile of artillery ammunition. A slimmed down version of the same proposal was tabled for another day. At the end of the meeting, EU officials walked away with nothing to show for their efforts.

Although this is no doubt discouraging to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it’s not surprising. Indeed, just because countries have a similar understanding of a problem doesn’t necessarily mean they will have a similar set of beliefs on what to do about it. Different European states also have different interests and opinions about what is most pressing or important. Those such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which hug the long Russian border and were once subject to Soviet Union rule, view the Russian threat as the most immediate. Italy and Spain, however, don’t share this history and are much farther away geographically, which means their perception of Moscow as a threat is less acute. Even in Germany, the second biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine, the war is just one concern among many. Immigration and the economy, for instance, were the leading issues for German voters during the last elections.

There is also a limit to what Europe is willing to do without Uncle Sam looking over its shoulder.

Working with Macron, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spent the last several weeks cobbling together a “coalition of the willing” to increase the odds of any peace deal with Russia holding. According to the plan, thousands of European troops would be placed near critical infrastructure sites in Ukraine, accompanied by air and sea assets, to defend these areas and potentially respond if Putin violates any deal. Starmer is prepared to host a meeting of European military chiefs this week to dive deeper into the operational details of the plan, up to and including which European country will contribute forces, who will command the mission and where air support will be based.

The problem, however, is that Starmer has repeatedly emphasized that his brainchild will only work if the mighty U.S. is backing up the European reassurance force. The British have made the argument that unless Washington is part of the mission, Putin simply won’t take it seriously and may press his luck with another invasion of Ukraine in the future. The Trump administration isn’t sympathetic to the pitch. Others, such as Germany and Italy, are either lukewarm to the concept entirely or don’t envision participating unless Washington is involved.

Yes, Europe is changing. But old habits die hard.

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

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Marion McCarthy was in seventh grade the first time she ever went to a library.

“I’ll never forget to this day, walking in there and seeing all those books. I couldn’t get over it — I was just so excited. And from then on, I really liked the library a lot,” said McCarthy, who is originally from Detroit and moved to St. Paul in 2011 to be closer to her son.

So McCarthy, still an avid reader at 97 years old, was again excited Friday when she received her first Minnesota library card from St. Paul Public Library’s Mobile Library when it visited Episcopal Homes, the senior living community where she lives in St. Paul’s Midway.

“Marion the Librarian,” McCarthy called herself, a nod to a character in the classic Broadway show “The Music Man.”

The library card will make it easier for McCarthy to request books for a monthly book club she’s joined. Until now, she’s had enough books available to her at Episcopal Homes, but that also didn’t stop her on Friday from checking out a book by John Grisham, one of her favorite authors.

“And they were able to get me a book right away, in large print,” McCarthy said.

Mobile Library

Those working on the Mobile Library, formerly known as the bookmobile, want to make sure that people can get the books they want, said mobile library manager Savitri Santhiran. For many, it’s the only regular access they have to a library.

“Every place that we visit faces some sort of barrier. So it could be social, economic, geographic barrier to visiting a regular brick-and-mortar location. So we’re not going to be parking right next to Rondo Library, because there’s already a brick-and-mortar location there,” Santhiran said. “We are going to be in places in St. Paul where there are few services, or no services in a couple cases.”

St. Paul Public Library has had a mobile library service since the late 1800s, Santhiran said. In addition to its books, the Mobile Library also provides or has provided other things, like notary services or digital education or youth engagement activities, such as crafts or STEM activities. The Mobile Library also has a wheelchair lift and large print books to make it more accessible.

Marion McCarthy, 97, of St. Paul, picks the design for her first Minnesota library card, a St. Paul Public Library card, from Mobile Library employee Matthew Metzdorf on Friday, March 28, 2025. (Imani Cruzen / Pioneer Press)

In addition to visits from the Mobile Library, the St. Paul Public Library also works with around 10 partner sites, such as Episcopal Homes, to provide an exchange set — a set of large-print books or books on CD that are lent to the site for three months in order to give residents a longer period of time to access them.

“A lot of people like me, they don’t have a car, and so they, you go online, get a book, and then they come here with the bookmobile, you pick up the book. And it’s very, very convenient, very convenient,” said Lena Brooks, who started the book club McCarthy has joined.

In addition to reading, McCarthy also leads regular exercise classes, has been involved with the Lake Elmo nonprofit Vital Aging Network’s Aging with Gusto series and has worked on “kindness kits” with items for people who are homeless.

“You can still participate, continue learning,” she said.

‘I just like learning’

Typically, McCarthy likes murder mysteries and authors like Grisham or Tom Clancy, but her next book club read will be a biography — though she likes those, too — “Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary” by Jean Marie Wiesen and Rita Daniels.

She might be one of the oldest new recipients of a library card at 97, but McCarthy is accustomed to showing others what they can do, especially at any age — she went to college despite hearing doubts about girls going and even entered a master’s program in her 70s.

“I just like learning, that’s all,” McCarthy said. “I can’t say why.”

To learn more about St. Paul’s Mobile Library and to see its schedule or services, go to sppl.org/mobile-library/.

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