Apple Reverses Privacy-Threatening Email Change

Apple has decided against a technical alteration that could have jeopardized user privacy via its Hide My Email feature. Initially, the company planned to change the domain for new Hide My Email addresses from @icloud.com to @private.icloud.com. This move, announced in June, would have enabled websites to distinguish between real and masked email addresses, diminishing the feature's effectiveness in protecting user anonymity. Reports suggest internal objections from the Hide My Email team contributed to this reversal, which Apple announced on Monday via a developer note. Although the primary Hide My Email addresses will retain their current domain, new Sign in with Apple addresses will adopt the @private.icloud.com domain later this year. This specific change for Sign in with Apple is not expected to pose privacy concerns, as websites are already aware when users opt to sign in using this method. Earlier in 2026, Apple also patched a significant bug within the Hide My Email system that had inadvertently exposed users' real email addresses.