Can a Website Grab Your Email Address?

I get this question a lot, and it's a common misconception that simply viewing a website with your browser will reveal your email address to the operator of that site. It's simply not true. Unless you do something to explicitly provide your email address, there is no way for a website to glean that information without your consent.

It is true that visiting a website does make certain bits of information available to the site owner. This includes the IP address assigned to your computer by your Internet provider, your operating system and web browser, the date and time, and the address of the referring web page. But none of that information can be used to identify you personally. The IP address can be used to determine the name of your Internet provider, and in some cases a very rough geographic location. See Does IP Address Reveal my Physical Location? for more information on that topic. But simply visiting a website will NOT reveal your email address to anyone.

So why do some people get spam about a certain topic after visiting a website related to that topic? Pure coincidence. Unless, of course, you GAVE them your email address. That could happen if you signed up for a newsletter, registered for a forum or chatroom, entered a contest, or made a purchase. Some sites try to trick you into sending them an email (and thereby revealing your address) by using a mailto: link. But your browser will present a warning (see image at left) if this is attempted.

You should always look for a privacy policy on a site before offering up ANY personal information. The privacy policy will spell out whether or not your name, address, phone number and email address will be kept private, and the conditions under which this information may be released to third parties. If your email address falls into the hands of unscrupulous website operators, it could very well be sold to spammers targetting the type of site you visited. And once your email address is compromised, it will be sold and resold to spammer networks of all sorts. So next month you might happen to visit a site about debt reduction, and then get 10 spams hawking related products. Pure coincidence. If you check your spam folder over the course of several weeks, you'll probably find the usual assortment of enlarge-your-bodypart and reduce-your-mortgage messages, no matter what sites you visit.

For more help on protecting your inbox, spam filters and spam blockers, see this article.

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