Hashed Email - Definition

An encrypted version of an email is utilized to enable cross-device experiences, allowing users to maintain a seamless and consistent interaction across multiple devices while ensuring their personal information remains secure. Often, organizations enhance this process by adding a salt—a random string of data—to the hashing mechanism. This addition transforms the email into a more privacy-by-design pseudonymous identifier, which helps protect user privacy by making it more difficult to reverse-engineer the original email address from the hashed value. This technique is usually referred to as Hashed Email Matching (HEM). The most commonly used hashing algorithms for this purpose are MD5 and SHA256, chosen for their reliability and effectiveness in securely hashing data. By employing these methods, organizations can effectively manage and utilize user data for personalized services while adhering to strict privacy and security standards.