Not content with already being one of the youngest, most nimble, and cutting-edge premium VPN providers on the market, Surfshark VPN is boosting its customer offering with a brand-new tool to add to its already significantly capable arsenal.

It has just announced the launch of Alternative ID, which helps users to hide their true identity online by providing them with an alternative identity and email address to use.

This unique new tool will help to boost online privacy for Surfshark VPN users, protecting their online data and also enabling them to avoid those hundreds of spam emails that clutter up your inbox every day.

What is Alternative ID and how does it work?

Alternative ID is the name of Surfshark VPN’s new online privacy tool.

It works by providing Surfshark VPN users with an alternative identity and email address to use online while keeping their true identity concealed.

When you set up Alternative ID, you are able to enter your preferred gender, birth date, and country or tailor the account to suit your needs. Then Surfshark VPN will generate a unique persona and email address for you to use online.

Don’t worry though. This isn’t just another email to add to your Outlook or email service. Once you have signed up, Surfshark VPN will develop a link between your new alternative email and your preferred real email address.

It will then forward the emails to the user’s real email address.

But the key feature that makes this tool different is that alternative email can be deleted at any time, and you can either generate a new one or just leave it be.

In this way, you can ensure that spam emails and phishing exercises are left behind and don’t clutter up your own inbox or put you at risk.

Why has Surfshark VPN created Alternative ID?

The constant demands from websites and online services for your email address and other personal information can be both a huge frustration when trying to do something simple online and also a major privacy concern.

Once you sign up for an online service, even if you only plan to use it once, you can find yourself bombarded by daily or even hourly emails pushing the service, different features that are available, or something else altogether.

While most sites will claim it is easy to unsubscribe from these email lists, in practice, it rarely is.

This is why Surfshark VPN has decided to create Alternative ID to help its subscribers avoid the security and privacy risks and the inconvenience that this causes its users.

As Sarunas Sereika, product manager at Surfshark VPN explained when launching Alternative ID, “People are constantly asked by websites to provide their personal information, including name, address, and email. At the same time, we can see that data breaches are happening more and more rapidly, and data brokers are also actively buying and selling user data.”

“Moreover, people’s inboxes are constantly being flooded with spam emails from numerous companies,” he continued, “and it can be challenging to manage and eliminate them all.”

“With Alternative ID, users can minimise their online footprint and enhance their privacy while maintaining their freedom online and being able to sign up on websites or subscribe to newsletters without worry.”

Is Alternative ID unique?

While Alternative ID is unique among the VPN community, as far as we are aware at least, it is nonetheless not the first time that a service like this has been created.

There are other companies on the market offering similar solutions, but they come at this service from a completely different perspective to Surfshark VPN.

Surfshark VPN is the only provider of an online privacy service of this type that prioritises credibility, transparent privacy policies, and ensuring a safe and reliable experience for our users. In other words, they are the only truly privacy-focused provider of this type of tool.

Surfshark VPN’s Alternative ID is also a flexible tool which means you can use it for as long or a short a period of time as you wish. It is bundled together in their Surfshark package, which means you can use it as and when you need it.

There are services that create false personas and those can can create throwaway email address, but very few package every feature together.

How can Surfshark VPN users use Alternative ID today?

At the moment, Surfshark VPN has only launched Alternative ID in its BETA version. For those unfamiliar with the term BETA, that means it is still in the testing phase and, while all users can use it, Surfshark VPN may still be tinkering with the software to make it work to its absolute best.

Surfshark VPN have not yet confirmed when the full version of Alternative ID will be launched but doubtless, they will be looking closely at the take-up of the BETA version and the feedback they get from users before finalising the tool and formally launching it.

If you want to try out Alternative ID today, you will, of course, need a Surfshark VPN account to do so. If you have one, it couldn’t be easier to start using it right now.

All you have to do is log into your Surfshark One or Surfshark One+ account as normal. Then just select Alternative ID on the home page, and you will be prompted to provide your preferences for your new online persona.

As soon as you have done that, Alternative ID is ready to use.

This is a tool that we are really looking forward to using. It’s not often that a VPN launches a genuinely different tool, so it will be lots of fun to see how this works and what a difference it makes to our online privacy.

If you have any feedback on Alternative ID, do please share it with us, and we will certainly be giving Surfshark VPN the benefit of our professional views on this exciting new online privacy tool.