Apple Won't Change Hide My Email Domain After Backlash

[MacRumors]

Apple today said it is reversing its decision and will not change the email domain used for the iCloud+ Hide My Email feature.

Emails sent using Hide My Email will continue to use the same icloud.com domain that Apple uses for standard iCloud emails.

In June, Apple said it would unify the email domains used by Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email under a single private.icloud.com domain. iPhone users expressed concern that moving Hide My Email to a private.icloud.com domain instead of icloud.com would let platforms easily block iCloud aliases. Using the same domain for iCloud and Hide My Email makes it hard for services to block the disposable iCloud addresses because doing so would also block legitimate users.

Apple said after further consideration and reviewing feedback from the community, it will not make the change. Sign in with Apple addresses will be issued through private.icloud.com instead of privaterelay.appleid.com starting later this year. There will be no update for Hide My Email addresses.

Sign in with Apple addresses created before the change will continue to be forwarded without interruption. Apple says developers with apps or websites that use Sign in with Apple should make sure their systems allow the private.icloud.com domain in addition to privaterelay.appleid.com.

Hide My Email is a paid iCloud feature that allows users to generate unique email addresses for each website or service, with options to deactivate and delete those addresses at any time. Hide My Email addresses are forwarded to a user's real email address, which is hidden from the site or service.

Article Link: Apple Won't Change Hide My Email Domain After Backlash

 

[sniffies]

Well, at least, somebody came to their senses today.

 

[kevcube]

some nice goodwill after the de-anonymizing discoveries for hide my email and private relay.

 

[Skwoodge]

Good. I was literally about to change to another service. This made no sense to me from a privacy standpoint. It's the entire basis of using this service in the first place.

 

[Astrohunter]

some nice goodwill after the de-anonymizing discoveries for hide my email and private relay.

What do you mean?

 

[Acidsplat]

I'm sure the bad press on the Hide My Email revealing your real address and Passkey leaking your actual IP caused a full review on these services.

 

[Sallah]

Fantastic news!!

 

[EU-Regulations]

tbh: GooPPLE aint my jam - I just want to delete everything from the iCloud asap.

 

[tkermit]

Excellent. Any news on whether/when the Private Relay bug is getting fixed in Tahoe? Supposedly it's fixed in GG already.

 

[Acidsplat]

Excellent. Any news on whether/when the Private Relay bug is getting fixed in Tahoe? Supposedly it's fixed in GG already.

According to my Tahoe VM, it was fixed in 26.6.2 but for some reason not the 26.7 RC (that version has a Safari build number one lower)

 

[iDaniel88]

Fantastic news! Hide my Email is one of my favorite features.

 

[paulcons]

I tied this a while back and it didn't seem to work... tried to again and it didn't seem easy to create one of the mails. I got the impression that ONLY if you were writing an email from their email software could I create such an address... even thought the whole point is from websites asking for your email address. AND exactly where do you go to "manage" the addresses you've used (I do a a few)?

 

[klasma]

What do you mean?

How Apple's Hide My Email exploit worked and why you're still at risk

The vulnerability has been fixed as of July 7, 2026, but the exploit was simple, and hidden email addresses may still be in third-party logs.

easyoptouts.com

iCloud Private Relay leaks real IP addresses | Proton

Researchers found a flaw in Apple's iCloud Private Relay that exposes real IP addresses, the second iCloud privacy failure this summer.

proton.me

 

[Acidsplat]

I tied this a while back and it didn't seem to work... tried to again and it didn't seem easy to create one of the mails. I got the impression that ONLY if you were writing an email from their email software could I create such an address... even thought the whole point is from websites asking for your email address. AND exactly where do you go to "manage" the addresses you've used (I do a a few)?

You just go to the Hide My Email section in System Settings under your iCloud+ settings.
You can manage all of them there and manually create I believe up to 750 at any time.

 

[ScooterComputer]

Go one step further, Apple: Start putting "+" in every 'Sign in with Apple' and 'Hide My Email' address!

That will force the jerk-tastic holdouts who continue to block the use of "+" in submitted email addresses to change course and allow the entire valid IETF RFC 5322 characterset (at least, though should follow RFC 6532 and allow Unicode too), specifically including "+", which is widely used for sub-address aliasing, and NOT allow them to merely lop off the sub-address alias 'detail' tag ("+tag") without the repercussion of significant amounts of bounced undeliverable mail.

 

[Scotty_Trees]

Can we even trust Apple anymore? Who do we trust more....or maybe less, Google or Apple? 🤔️

 

[ProTruckDriver]

Sounds Good To Me 👍

 

[Hammerd]

So I created those 500 hide my email addresses for nothing?..

 

[Sneakz]

And people in the previous thread were commenting about how “it’s not a big deal”.

Clearly it was

 

[GregoryPeckEPA]

some nice goodwill after the de-anonymizing discoveries for hide my email and private relay.

Still no fix either. Still not happy about that. And explains why my primary email is still inundated with occasional spam 😡

 

[tkermit]

Who do we trust more....or maybe less, Google or Apple? 🤔️

I don't get the impression that Google is particularly concerned with my privacy, whereas Apple at least tries (which means they sometimes fail).

 

[Zeb02]

makes it hard for services to block the disposable iCloud addresses because doing so would also block legitimate users.

Legitimate users? Perhaps editorializing a bit much here, people who want to obscure their permanent address are also very much legitimate users.

 

[ReliableSource]

Huge news. I had problems with that on occasion back when I used 33mail, and iCloud’s version has been working pretty flawlessly for me since switching. Glad to hear that there can still be some positive news from the Apple newsroom.

 

[symphony3299]

So I created those 500 hide my email addresses for nothing?..

Same! I created 200 backup aliases when they said they will change it to the other domain, ugh!

 

[dg1974]

I tied this a while back and it didn't seem to work... tried to again and it didn't seem easy to create one of the mails. I got the impression that ONLY if you were writing an email from their email software could I create such an address... even thought the whole point is from websites asking for your email address. AND exactly where do you go to "manage" the addresses you've used (I do a a few)?

You can create new Hide My Mail addresses directly from Safari when logging into a new site and manage them from Settings->iCloud.