Unveiling an Ingenious Method to Track Email Origins Securely

At the core of this innovative approach lies a simple yet powerful process. By harnessing the Vue.js framework, a snippet of code interacts with an external API to retrieve the user’s geographical data based on their IP address. The code snippet, shown below, exemplifies the steps involved:

<template>
 <div>
  <p>{{ email }}@besoeasy.com</p>
 </div>
</template>

<script>
 import axios from 'axios';

 export default {
  data() {
   return { email: 'a' };
  },

  async mounted() {
   const { data } = await axios.get('https://ipapi.co/json/');

   console.log(data);

   const { city } = data;

   if (city) {
    this.email = city.toLowerCase().replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/g, '');
   }
  },
 };
</script>

Deconstructing the Process

Vue.js Integration: The Vue.js framework facilitates the creation of a dynamic user interface, allowing seamless interaction with the API.

IP-based Location Retrieval: Through an Axios HTTP request, the code fetches geographical data via the ‘ipapi.co/json/’ API. This data includes information about the user’s city.

Concealing the Email: Leveraging the obtained city information, the code modifies the email address string. It utilizes the city name, converted to lowercase and stripped of non-alphanumeric characters, to obscure the actual origin. For instance, ‘New York’ becomes ‘newyork,’ which replaces the original email identifier.

By transforming the IP-derived city information using a Caesar cipher or a similar encryption technique, the resulting email appears completely unrelated to the user’s IP address.

For instance, ‘123.123.132.45’ might become ‘asdsf3hr4r@besoeasy.com’ — seemingly nonsensical to the user.

Extra tips, if you using Gmail

Gmail recognizes variations of an email address by disregarding everything after a plus sign. For instance, if the original email is besoeasy@gmail.com, you can utilize email aliases as follows:

Original Email: besoeasy@gmail.com

Aliased Email: besoeasy+asdsf3hr4r@gmail.com

Decoding the Cipher

While the altered email might seem baffling to the user, it’s reversible at the recipient’s end. The encrypted email identifier can be decrypted back to its original form, revealing the actual city-based information without exposing the user’s IP address or compromising their privacy.

Conclusion

This innovative approach to tracking email origins presents a harmonious blend of functionality and user privacy. By concealing the direct link between the email identifier and the user’s IP address, this method ensures anonymity while serving the purpose of email tracking. However, it’s essential to weigh the ethical and legal considerations surrounding the use of such techniques, ensuring alignment with data protection regulations and user consent.