Apple says while Sign in with Apple addresses will still move to a new domain, Hide My Email will stay on iCloud.com after community pushback.
Changing email domains can create chaos for website and email client administrators. After concerns were raised over Hide My Email changing to private.icloud.com, Apple has shifted course.
According to a new developer document published Monday, Apple says it will no longer be moving Hide My Email to a different domain. It will remain on icloud.com while Sign in with Apple will still move to private.icloud.com.
The decision was made after strong community pushback about the change to Hide My Email.
The change to Sign in with Apple makes sense given the original addresses were on the domain privaterelay.appleid.com. The Apple ID term has been changed to Apple Account, so Apple likely wanted to align its email domain with that change.
Existing email addresses won't see any change and forwarding will still work without interruption.
The primary problem with changing the expected domain a user might utilize when creating an account is web developers and email administrators will have to address that change directly. It's a problem that will go away with time, but moving Hide My Email could create problems with the service on a wide scale right away.
However, moving Sign in with Apple won't be as much of an issue, because the websites using the feature will address the change as it happens. Since it's a specific feature that has to be implemented and maintained, it'll create fewer problems.
On the other hand, Hide My Email can be used anywhere without the website admins knowing whether it will be used or not. That would require wider adoption of the new domain on white lists to prevent email interruptions.
However, that wasn't the only concern related to the Hide My Email domain.
Hide My Email works because of its domain name
The reason why Hide My Email is effective at all is because it generates emails that use the same domain normal Apple Account email addresses use. Of course, there's also me.com, mac.com, and other older domains, but icloud.com is the norm today.
By moving Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email both to private.icloud.com, websites and email providers could easily place a blanket ban on the domain, blocking all aliases generated to preserve privacy. It would render the feature useless.
Moving only Sign in with Apple to a new, easily identifiable domain isn't an issue since utilizing that feature is voluntary. When your website offers Sign in with Apple, it is expected to return an anonymous email address if the user so chooses.
Of course, it is important to remember that Hide My Email is a privacy tool, not something that will hide you from Apple or consequences. Apple still associates a Hide My Email address with your account, which means emails sent from that account can be subpoenaed.
It also isn't foolproof, as we've seen with bugs bypassing the system. While Apple has patched the issue that would leak user's real iCloud email, don't count on it for absolute anonymity, but instead treat it as a way to identify and control sources of spam.
