Apple keeps Hide My Email on @icloud.com

Apple reversed a planned Hide My Email domain change after users said @private.icloud.com could make masked addresses easier to detect and block.

Apple has backed away from a change to its Hide My Email privacy feature after users warned it could make the service less useful. The company had planned to move masked addresses to @private.icloud.com, but now says they will stay on @icloud.com.

The reversal matters because Hide My Email is one of Apple’s privacy tools for iCloud+ subscribers. It lets people create disposable email addresses for websites while still receiving messages in their regular inbox. As IT-PUB News notes, the dispute showed how even a small-looking change in an email format can affect whether a privacy feature still feels practical.

Apple will keep masked addresses on @icloud.com

Hide My Email is meant to help paying iCloud+ users avoid sharing their real address with websites. Instead of giving out a personal email, users can generate a unique masked address that forwards messages to their main inbox.

Apple had earlier said it would move those addresses to @private.icloud.com. Users quickly argued that the new domain would make the addresses easier to spot during sign-ups and easier for websites to block. On social media and Reddit, some said that would undermine the point of using the feature at all.

On Monday, Apple confirmed that Hide My Email addresses “will remain” on @icloud.com. The company did not explain why it changed course.

Users said the new domain would make masking obvious

The criticism centered on visibility. Under the current setup, Hide My Email addresses are not easily distinguishable from standard Apple email addresses ending in @icloud.com. That makes them harder for websites to single out.

Users said the proposed @private.icloud.com domain would do the opposite. If a site can immediately identify a masked address, it may be more likely to reject it during registration or treat it differently. For people using the feature to limit spam or reduce the spread of their real email address, that would cut into its value.

The pushback was not just about convenience. It also reflected a broader expectation around privacy tools: they should help users stay in control of their data without making them stand out. In this case, many users felt the planned change would do the reverse.

Hide My Email still does not make users anonymous

Even with the reversal, Hide My Email is not a full anonymity tool. Apple can still tell law enforcement who is behind a masked email address. The feature is designed to hide a user’s real address from websites, not to make someone untraceable.

That distinction matters. Hide My Email can reduce exposure and help separate online accounts from a personal inbox, but it does not remove Apple from the chain. The company can still link the masked address back to the user if required.

For many iCloud+ subscribers, the feature is still likely to remain useful because it balances privacy with everyday email use. The episode also shows how fragile that balance can be when a platform changes the details of how a tool looks or works.

The change followed earlier scrutiny of the feature

The decision comes after another Hide My Email issue surfaced earlier this year. 404 Media reported that a bug in the feature revealed people’s real email addresses. According to the report, Apple fixed the bug more than a year after it was first told that emails rejected as spam could leak the real addresses of users behind masked emails.

That earlier problem put extra attention on this part of Apple’s privacy setup. Against that backdrop, the planned domain change was always likely to draw closer scrutiny from users who already expected the feature to be handled carefully.

Apple’s latest update does not address the bug report directly. But it does show the company stepping back from a change that users saw as risky. For people who rely on Hide My Email to keep their inboxes cleaner and their personal address less visible, the decision preserves the version of the feature they already know.