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Temporary inboxes for course signups

Disposable, expiring addresses let students trial tools without handing over a permanent identity.

LELena Fischer5 min readUpdated 5 August 2026

The problem with permanent addresses

Sign up for one tool with a permanent address and you inherit its mailing list forever. Students sign up for dozens per term.

Expiring by design

A temporary inbox carries an expires_at from the moment it is created. When the clock runs out, the address stops accepting mail and the contents are purged.

ts
const mailbox = await mailboxService.create({
  address: "trial-2026",
  expiresAt: addDays(new Date(), 7),
});

Good uses

  • Trialling a study tool for a fortnight
  • Receiving a one-off verification code
  • Running a workshop where fifty attendees need mail for one afternoon

When not to use one

Never use a temporary inbox for account recovery on anything you intend to keep. Expiring mail and password resets are a bad pairing.

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About the author

Lena Fischer

Head of Trust & Privacy

Lena leads privacy engineering and campus compliance reviews, covering FERPA, GDPR and data-retention design.

All posts by Lena Fischer

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