How I Built a Free Anonymous Email Service — No Phone, No Password, No Logs

Last year I tried to create an email account for a side project. Gmail wanted my phone number. Outlook wanted my phone number. ProtonMail — the "privacy" email — wanted my phone number too. I thought: why does an email service need to know who I am? So I built my own. The Problem Every email provider today collects something about you at signup: Provider What they require Gmail Phone number + real name Outlook Phone number ProtonMail Phone or recovery email Tutanota Existing email + manual appro