Mail60: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is Mail60?
Mail60 is a "disposable email service". Basically, you can create a 60-minute mailbox very quickly and easily, without any questions asked (e.g. your name or other personal info) or need for providing an existing email address. The only confirmation required is a captcha, to prevent bots from quickly creating dozens of email addresses automatically.What's the point of a mailbox that lasts for just an hour?
One word: privacy. The most common example is when you want to register on a site, and need to receive its confirmation email, but don't want to receieve any more messages from them in the future (possibly because your interest in the site is only tangential). Worse, maybe it's a site you don't exactly trust not to sell your email address to other companies (even though you didn't give permission). But you can't just make up a non-existing email address, since you have to do something with the confirmation email (say, click on a link). A disposable email address is the perfect middle ground: you can receive the email(s) you expect, then simply forget about it.Sounds good! Any other advantages?
As mailboxes are deleted after 60 minutes, and we don't make any backups of them, we believe we provide better privacy than other email services, which, even if you delete a mailbox, may keep backups of it.And what about disadvantages or limitations?
Other than the main feature itself (mailboxes are deleted 60 minutes after their creation), the main limitation is that you cannot send email, only receive it. We hope you understand that there would be no way to instantaneously provide anonymous mailboxes with no verification if they could be used to send email spam or take part in any other illegal activities.
Also, we wanted to keep the service simple and easy to use, so there are no such features such as folders, filtering or address books. We feel that there isn't really a point to providing those when your mailbox and account will be deleted in just an hour.
What should I not use a Mail60 mailbox for?
Mostly, if you do need to receive more email from the website / service / person in the future. For instance, if you want to receive promotion emails from a company, or subscribe to a mailing list, a permanent mailbox would be required, instead of a Mail60 (temporary) one.
Another possibility is if you need to reply to the email you'll receive, instead of, say, clicking on a link on it. Since Mail60 accounts can only receive mail, not send it, you will be unable to reply. This requirement was common years ago, on mailing lists, but these days you almost always can just click on a link in the confirmation email.