Apple reverses plan to move Hide My Email addresses to new domain
Apple has abandoned its plan to shift Hide My Email addresses from the @icloud.com domain to @private.icloud.com. The company confirmed Monday that masked email addresses will stay on @icloud.com, reversing an earlier decision announced this year.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The switch would have made masked addresses easily identifiable and blockable by websites, undermining the entire point of the privacy feature. The reversal, reportedly pushed by internal objections from Apple employees, shows how user and staff backlash can force Apple to walk back changes to widely used privacy tools.
- Hide My Email addresses will remain on the @icloud.com domain instead of moving to @private.icloud.com.
- Users and Apple employees reportedly argued the change would let websites easily reject masked email addresses, defeating the feature's purpose.
- The reversal follows earlier reports of a bug that exposed real email addresses behind Hide My Email masks.
YubiKey 5C NFC Security Key — If you care enough about privacy to use Hide My Email, locking down the accounts behind those masked addresses is the natural next step. The YubiKey 5C NFC works with iPhone via NFC and USB-C devices, and Apple ID supports hardware security keys for sign-in. It's a simple physical layer of protection for the inbox everything routes back to.
See YubiKey 5C NFC Security Key on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: techcrunch.com — Zack Whittaker, 2026-08-25
Published there as: “Apple rescues Hide My Email feature from the privacy scrap heap”
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