Apple has reversed a planned modification to its Hide My Email feature, which was set to diminish the privacy tool’s effectiveness. Hide My Email, available to iCloud+ subscribers, generates disposable email addresses that forward to users’ actual inboxes, masking personal email addresses from websites. The feature’s primary benefit is that these generated addresses are indistinguishable from regular @icloud.com addresses, although Apple retains the ability to disclose the true identity behind a masked email to law enforcement upon request.
Earlier this year, Apple announced intentions to transition Hide My Email addresses from the @icloud.com domain to @private.icloud.com. This change drew significant criticism from users, who argued on social media and forums like Reddit that it would undermine the service’s purpose by making it easier for websites to reject these email addresses during sign-ups. In response to the backlash, Apple confirmed on Monday that Hide My Email addresses will remain on the @icloud.com domain, reversing the previously announced shift to @private.icloud.com. The company provided no official explanation for the reversal, though John Gruber of Daring Fireball reported that Apple employees had internally objected to the change from the outset. Source