Burner Email Address and Impact on Modern Politics

Burner Email Addresses are beginning to gain popularity among web surfers. Alternatively, they are referred to as "Anonymous Email Addresses" or "Disposable Email Addresses" (DEAs). Basically, burner email addresses are short-term email addresses provided by the likes of Guerrilla Mail, Email On Deck and so on. It is absolutely possible to get a new one and begin to receive emails within seconds of its creation with no sign-ups or personal details required.

While people use Disposable Email Addresses for different reasons, its major purpose is to block out spammers from reaching one's real inbox and online identity protection. For instance, patronizing an online or offline store you don't want to hear from again might require filling a form. In this case, temporary email addresses can be used instead of a real one to prevent getting bombarded with tons of adverts all within a short time.

It is noteworthy that anonymous mailing has silently crept its way into the modern political arena as well. On the part of politicians and their political party campaign managers, Disposable Email Addresses are beginning to serve as a useful channel for launching electioneering campaigns. Election managers now engage the services of solo ad vendors from where they purchase bulk email lists of their target voters (in terms of geographical location, age group, and gender) and send out anonymous mails to canvass for support. It is also a flexible means of providing the electorate with information about candidates and soliciting for feedback via a real email address contained in the anonymous one.

In contrast to this, due to the incognito nature of such mails sent using Disposable Email Address services, political whistle blowers and political blackmailers tend to use it to the detriment of their political opponents. This adds to the "dirtiness" of the political game as information is tossed around without revealing the identity of the sender. It enables them to get so low and fight really dirty without inhibitions.

People also use Disposable Email Addresses to sign up for political email newsletters which they read and follow up on. It's not a wonder that such newsletters actually get read. Subscribers using Disposable Email Addresses are only protecting their privacy and political views. For instance, a personal email address isn't tied to a specific political view point type newsletter.

However, while most party campaign managers would like to hide under anonymity to spread dirty secrets and unfounded allegations in a bid to score political points and pull down their opponents, they might not remain under cover for long. This is because anonymous accounts can get traced using IP addresses which contain the location of the sender. For DEA providers who regularly wipe their log files there may not be much more than an IP address available.

Depending on the extent of damage caused by such anonymous mails, a requesting order from a court could also be obtained to compel the email service provider to turn over valuable information that would nail the culprit. So, in the long-run, abusers of this service in the political sphere might not get away with it.

In all, burner email addresses are easily accessible to be used for political reasons. Information about election rallies, party ideology and economic blueprint as well as candidate profiles could be easily passed to the electorate. Baring other reasons for its use, online credibility might not be achieved by remaining incognito due to the widespread abuse of this service by fraudsters and spammers which makes an average person want to blacklist a disposable email address. So, if the purpose of politicking is to serve the people and gain rapport, a conventional email address might just provide the needed edge.