Apple rescues Hide My Email feature from the privacy scrap heap
Apple says it will no longer ditch using its icloud.com domain for hiding people's email addresses.
Apple has reversed its decision to change its Hide My Email feature, reversing a move that privacy advocates believed would weaken the tool's effectiveness. Hide My Email, a premium iCloud+ service, crafts a one-time, disposable email address for users to share with websites instead of their personal email addresses. This way, the real email remains hidden, while emails are still delivered to the user's primary inbox.
The feature's key advantage lies in the fact that these generated email addresses are indistinguishable from regular iCloud users via @icloud.com. However, Apple still cooperates with law enforcement by being able to identify the individual behind the masked email. Earlier this year, Apple announced its intention to shift users to @private.icloud.com, a change that privacy advocates deemed counterproductive, as it would make it simpler for websites to reject these masked email addresses during the sign-up process.
Users took to social media and forums to express their discontent, arguing that this change would nullify the feature's purpose. Apple confirmed via a statement on Monday that Hide My Email addresses will continue to be assigned to @icloud.com, contrary to its prior announcement. While Apple declined to provide a reason for the change, tech journalist John Gruber, who first disclosed the reversal, cited objections from Apple employees as the likely cause.
Earlier this year, 404 Media reported on a bug within Hide My Email, which potentially exposed users' actual email addresses. Apple promptly addressed the issue, although it had been made aware of the problem over a year prior.
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