Apple Keeps Hide My Email Addresses on iCloud.com After Privacy Concerns

Apple has reversed a planned change to its Hide My Email privacy feature after users raised concerns that the update could weaken the tool’s ability to protect their online identity.

Hide My Email, available to iCloud+ subscribers, creates unique email addresses that forward messages to a user’s real inbox without exposing the primary address. Apple says the feature is designed to help users share email addresses while keeping their personal inbox private.

Apple keeps Hide My Email on iCloud.com

Apple previously planned to move Hide My Email addresses from @icloud.com to @private.icloud.com. Users argued that the change could make these addresses easier for websites to recognise and block during sign-ups.

The company confirmed that Hide My Email addresses “will remain” on @icloud.com but did not explain the reason for the change in its decision. Daring Fireball reported that Apple employees had objected to the planned change internally.

Privacy limits and previous security issue

While Hide My Email hides a user’s real address from websites, Apple can still identify the account connected to a masked email. 404 Media reported that Apple can provide account details linked to a Hide My Email address when required in response to legal requests.

The feature also faced a separate security issue earlier this year. A reported bug exposed some users’ real email addresses in certain spam-related situations. Apple later fixed the issue following reports about the vulnerability.

By keeping the original @icloud.com format, Apple is preserving Hide My Email’s design, which aims to make masked addresses look like regular Apple email addresses.