Apple is about to make Hide My Email useless (arseniyshestakov.com)

Article summary

Apple is changing the domain for Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email aliases to @private.icloud.com, making it easier for services to ban these emails without affecting non-relay mailboxes on iCloud mail. This change may reduce the effectiveness of Hide My Email, a feature intended to provide privacy by generating unique, disposable email addresses. The change has not yet taken effect, and users can still generate aliases on the @icloud.com domain. This change may impact users who rely on Hide My Email for privacy.

Main themes

• Apple privacy features
• Email aliasing
• Online privacy
• Service bans
• Apple ecosystem

What commenters say

• The new domain change makes it easier for services to ban Hide My Email aliases without affecting legitimate iCloud email users.
• Some commenters believe that banning Apple's temporary email domain would create many false positives, affecting normal Apple-registered emails.
• Others argue that the change will not significantly impact the effectiveness of Hide My Email, as services could already ban aliases with few false positives.
• Some users are concerned that this change will lead to more services blocking or banning emails from the @private.icloud.com domain, reducing the usefulness of Hide My Email.
• A few commenters speculate that Apple made this change to avoid having their legitimate email servers banned by other servers due to spam accounts.
• Some users express frustration with services that block or ban privacy-friendly email services, stating they would rather not use those services.
• There is disagreement over whether the change will affect the use of Sign in with Apple, with some arguing that it will not impact its functionality.
• Some commenters note that users can still access information on websites that block privacy-friendly emails, such as through alternative accounts or without logging in.