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Airbnb boosts privacy with anonymized email

Airbnb boosts privacy with anonymized email
Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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Airbnb is improving its privacy by introducing ‘anonymized email addresses’. This means you’ll be able to communicate with your Airbnb hosts or guests without giving out your private email address.

In a blog post, Airbnb’s Trust and Safety Manager Phillip Cardenas explained why the company is doing this. In the past, when you made a booking, you could then communicate via email – the addresses were revealed to hosts and guests once a booking was made. But not everyone is comfortable giving their email address to someone they may never communicate with again, and there was always a chance that scammers might get a hold of addresses and use them maliciously.

With anonymized email, you’ll still be able to communicate with each other as usual, only you won’t be able to see the other person’s real address. Airbnb creates a temporary email address for each party, which will only work until the booking and stay are completed.

Cardenas also reminds users that they should only ever make payments through Airbnb, not via email or any other method, and never to share log-in details or click any links or attachments from unverified sources.

Anonymized email addresses should help guests and hosts feel more secure communicating with one another.

Download the Airbnb app for: AndroidiOSWindows Phone

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Jonathan Riggall

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