It’s a pain: You want to read a news article, but you don’t want to surrender your email address to some website. When you submit, you know that you’re going to receive an email inbox full of spam and unwanted requests and other nonsense. Is it worth the hassle?

No.

Case in point: I recently tried out an app on my Android tablet that purposed to offer me a free movie a week. If I wanted to buy a movie, I could. Sounds like a deal, right? Sadly, the deal was a nightmare. While you can watch a “free” movie in 5-minute bursts, you subject yourself to advertising. It just pops up! And so I figured the app wasn’t for me, so I uninstalled it. Then came the email spam.

Every week, I receive three emails from this outfit. I tried to unsubscribe, but you can’t. They keep sending me crap over and over. Don’t worry: I wrote a review in the Google Play Store explaining how awful the app is, but I still get the email.

To avoid this problem, you need either an “I don’t mind the spam” email address or a temporary email address.

My Yahoo email address is the one I use for crap I don’t want. When I bother to check that address, the inbox is crammed full of spam and other nonsense. That’s great! It’s why I setup that account.

Another solution can be found at the 10 Minute Mail website. Click the link and you’re given a temporary email address. It’s setup with an inbox and everything! After ten minutes, however, the address becomes invalid and the email inbox is removed.

The 10 Minute Mail website obviously isn’t a solution for electronic mail, but it does resolve the issue of “send us your email to get the account” type of websites.

So when you visit a web page that says, “Please submit your email address to sign up,” you can open another web browser tab, visit 10 Minute Mail, get an address, submit it, then wait for the reply. After that, the account is yours and no one will ever bother you again. Neat-o!

Of course, if you create an account on a website and lose your password, you’re screwed. You can’t ever have that website send you another password because your 10 Minute Mail address is no longer valid.

Another problem I’ve had is that some of the more sophisticated websites are on to the 10 Minute Mail address process. When I tried to sign up, I received a warning that I had to use a “legitimate” email address. That was disappointing, but I restored to using my Yahoo address instead, no problem.