My burner email blocklist blocked me
A developer argues against the practice of automatically blocking 'burner' email addresses during user signups. He suggests that modern privacy-focused email aliases should be distinguished from temporary, public-access inboxes to avoid blocking legitimate users.
Why it matters
As privacy tools become mainstream, businesses must update their security heuristics to avoid alienating privacy-conscious users.
A few days ago I tried to sign up for a public open-data service ( the ECMWF , if you care ) using a Proton Mail alias, and the form rejected my address as “potential spam”. My frustration was mixed with a bit of guilt: in 2018 I published Burnex , an Elixir package that compared emails against a large list of known burner domains, temporary inboxes like yopmail.fr that exist to receive a confirmation link and disappear. The library itself was relying on the fairly popular wesbos/burner-email-providers list.
The content is a technical recommendation regarding software development and user experience best practices.
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