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iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

developer.apple.com

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Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#171

Post by DarmokTanagra »

_zoltan_ wrote: post #110
DarmokTanagra wrote: post #67

I use hide my email and single use credit card numbers all the time, its a fantastic system combined with some basic email forwarding rules. Yes, vendor lock in sucks, but I have $20k worth of apple hardware already so that ship has sailed and overall Im pretty happy with it.

single use card tied to you, or via some privacy frontend? if the latter, care to share your experience?

many cards offer virtual card numbers, robinhood card offers name anonymization.

been a user for a couple years now and no complaints

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#172

Post by inigyou »

kolinko wrote: post #153
serbuvlad wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this very interesting in 2026. I use my gmail address for everything and I don't really get spam (except from services I've subscribed to legitimately but haven't bothered to configure to not send promotional mail). I never really get promotional mail from 3rd parties at all. Is this just gmail filters being very good?

Gmail filters are very good, dod you check your spam folder?

Gmail blackholes even more spam, not even sending it to your spam folder.

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#173

Post by inigyou »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #100
dwroberts wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why CSAM specifically? Isn’t it mostly going to be just vanilla fraud?

Disposable mail providers generate a ton of spam too, but CSAM is illegal to host , so it's pretty risky to allow them unmitigated.

Citation needed that you'll go to jail if a user uploads child porn to your site and you remove it when notified

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#174

Post by inigyou »

HeavenFox wrote: post #40
hollow-moe wrote: post #11

Using icloud.com domain for legit and hidden adresses is such a typical Apple strategy of holding their own users and "others" (ie. other web services, other users etc) hostage simultaneously. But at least here it is actually a good reason that works for the user.

Case in point: many websites block all VPN except iCloud Private Relay. Thank you Apple!

I worked at a place that was contractually mandated to block VPNs except iCloud Private Relay and we had a special exception in the code for this.

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#175

Post by inigyou »

leshenka wrote: post #139
saretup wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s an additional layer of wall for their walled garden to keep the technically proficient users that are more likely to hop walls.

Technically proficient users can figure out their own solutions for throwaway emails e.g. aforementioned Fastmail.

Many systems out there have specific exceptions from their VPN policy for iCloud emails and iCloud private relay. Places that would immediately block fastmail because of its alias feature will not block iCloud because too many people use it. Market share is real power. You can ban 0.1% of your customers, you can't ban 30% of your customers.

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#176

Post by inigyou »

refulgentis wrote: post #47
consumer451 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, Apple is "big tech," but they are the only one that appears to give a crap about privacy at all. And really, they put a lot of money and effort into it. We need to give kudos when they are due. Apple's Private Cloud Compute should have won some kind of Nobel Privacy Prize, which for some reason does not yet exist.

The person you're replying to is saying "Sites I use block all VPNs besides Apple's subscription service VPN" - I'm not sure they're not blocking it just because they fervently believe in Apple's privacy commitments and engineering :) Only pointing this out because I love Apple's privacy story and don't want your reply to be misconstrued as sarcasm, and thus the reason why it enjoys a singular exemption is because it…

They don't block it because of the publicity it would generate. Social factors matter.

"We blocked people for using special hacker privacy tools. Stop using the special tools if you want service." versus "we blocked people for using the most popular kind of end device. Buy a second, really obscure brand of device if you want service."

(In the US, that is. Outside the US, Android devices are more popular but Apple still has the plurality because there's only one of it)

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#177

Post by inigyou »

HeavenFox wrote: post #75
dymk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn’t explain how the user is held “hostage” by Apple

Hostage may be a bad analogy. More like a game of chicken. Imagine you are a regular @icloud.com email user. Apple is basically saying "I dare you to block all @icloud.com email and lose all these customers"

So the website is being "held hostage", not the user.

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#178

Post by inigyou »

Schiendelman wrote: post #134
Jleagle wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say nothing is free, but Amazon, Discord, Dropbox, Facebook, GitHub, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, Paypal, Reddit, Slack, Steam, TikTok, Twitter etc all offer it for free. Plus, it's not for the dev, it's for the users of the website.

It's not free - you're agreeing for them to track and advertise to your customers. Apple does not do that with your Apple login data.

Huh? Of course Apple does that, and charges you for the privilege as well.

Re: iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com

#179

Post by inigyou »

sunaookami wrote: post #121
pasc1878 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you want this. Is it a benefit to you? If it is why should you not pay for that benefit? Nothing is free.

Since when did we start accepting that paying for providing OAuth sign-in for other companies is good?

I wish you had to pay for all of them. We'd see a lot less of them.
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