Apple patched a Hide My Email flaw that could expose real inbox addresses, after a researcher reportedly flagged the issue more than a year earlier.

The post Apple Fixes Hide My Email Bug After Yearlong Delay appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit after Anthony Alvarez alleged that the company’s Hide My Email feature failed to protect users’ real email addresses as advertised. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims Apple promoted Hide My Email as a privacy safeguard while continuing to charge customers for access through its iCloud+ subscription service.  The legal action follows a report from 404 Media that revealed a reported vulnerability in Hide My Email. The report claimed the flaw could allow someone to identify a user’s actual email address from the private relay address generated by the feature. According to the report, Apple had been aware of the issue for more than a year before releasing a fix. 

Hide My Email Vulnerability Becomes the Focus of Apple Lawsuit 

Apple confirmed that it deployed a patch on July 3, 2026, stating that the Hide My Email vulnerability had been fully resolved. However, the lawsuit alleges that Apple continued marketing the feature as secure while the reported weakness remained unresolved.  The complaint states that security researchers first informed Apple about the vulnerability in June 2025. Although Apple acknowledged the report, Anthony Alvarez’s lawsuit claims the company did not resolve the issue for nearly a year. The filing also alleges that Apple incorrectly stated in March 2026 that the problem had been fixed, even though researchers reported that the vulnerability remained exploitable. 

How Apple’s Hide My Email Feature Works 

Hide My Email was introduced with Sign in with Apple in 2019. The feature creates unique relay addresses for supported apps and websites, allowing messages to reach a user’s inbox without revealing the person’s actual email address. Apple later expanded Hide My Email through the paid iCloud+ subscription, launched alongside iOS 15 and macOS Monterey in September 2021. The iCloud+ version allows subscribers to create unlimited private relay addresses for websites, newsletters and email communication. The lawsuit argues that millions of Apple users relied on Hide My Email to reduce spam, limit online tracking, protect personal information from data brokers and avoid exposure during third-party data breaches. Researchers cited in the complaint said that once a real email address is revealed, it may be linked with publicly available people-search databases, potentially exposing identities and other personal information.

Anthony Alvarez Claims Apple Misled Customers Over Privacy 

The complaint argues that Apple built much of its brand identity around privacy, referencing marketing statements such as “Privacy. That’s iPhone,” “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone,” and descriptions of privacy as a “fundamental human right” and “core value.”  According to the lawsuit, Apple’s privacy messaging influenced consumer decisions and helped justify premium pricing for Apple hardware and services. The plaintiffs claim Hide My Email was promoted as a central part of those privacy commitments.  The filing alleges that Apple asked researchers not to publicly disclose details of the vulnerability instead of warning customers or temporarily disabling the feature. It claims users were never informed that their real email addresses could potentially be exposed while Apple continued presenting Hide My Email as a privacy protection tool. 

Lawsuit Seeks Damages and Changes From Apple 

Anthony Alvarez is seeking reimbursement for iCloud+ subscription fees and other alleged financial losses. The lawsuit requests an injunction requiring Apple to either provide the privacy protection promised through Hide My Email or clearly disclose any limitations.  The complaint includes claims involving California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act, along with allegations of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, breach of implied warranty and unjust enrichment.  The lawsuit argues customers paid for Apple’s privacy protections in multiple ways, including iCloud+ subscription fees and premium prices associated with Apple devices marketed as offering stronger privacy features. Apple has stated that the July 3, 2026 patch resolved the Hide My Email issue. 

Apple faces a proposed class action alleging a Hide My Email flaw could expose users’ real addresses despite the company’s privacy claims.

The post Apple Sued Over Hide My Email Privacy Claims appeared first on TechRepublic.

A 15-year-old boy asked a chatbot for help - and cancelled nearly 47,000 anime streaming subscriptions in under four hours. Meanwhile, researchers have documented the first fully autonomous, agentic AI-driven ransomware attack, "JadePuffer". What does this tell us about the future of cybersecurity? Also, Apple's "Hide My Email" feature turns out to hide rather less than it promises - despite Apple knowing it has a problem for over a year. All this and more in this episode of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Zoë Rose.

404 Media reports that a researcher has found a vulnerability in Apple’s Hide My Email feature that could allow someone to discover a person’s real email address.

That’s especially concerning because protecting your real email address is exactly what the feature is designed to do. 404 Media did not publish technical details of the vulnerability to avoid helping attackers exploit it, but said it independently verified that the issue works.

Hide My Email generates:

“Unique, random email addresses that automatically forward to your personal email inbox. Each address is unique to you. You can read and respond directly to emails sent to these addresses and your personal email address is kept private.”

Instead of giving a website or app your real email address when you sign up, you can give it one of these randomly generated addresses. Messages are forwarded to your normal inbox, but the sender shouldn’t be able to see your real email address. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Tyler Murphy, co-founder of EasyOptOuts, discovered and reported the issue to Apple in June 2025. More than a year later, he says the vulnerability still hasn’t been fixed.

When Murphy reached out to Apple again in May, he received the following response:

“We are still investigating this issue. To avoid placing our customers at risk, we would appreciate you not disclosing this information until our investigation is complete. We appreciate your assistance in helping us to maintain and improve the security of our products.”

Murphy suggested Apple should stop promoting the feature until it could be fixed. Apple reportedly told him it expected to address the issue in a security update in the coming weeks. When that failed to happen, Murphy decided to reach out to 404 Media.

Instead, we learned a few weeks ago that Apple plans to make the Hide My Email less useful for some users. In a note to developers, the company said it will move anonymously generated email addresses to the @private.icloud.com domain. Effectively, this makes it easier for apps and websites to recognize that an email address was created with Hide My Email and potentially refuse to accept it during the sign-up process.

What you can do

Using a different email address for every website or service is still good privacy practice. It makes it easier to identify which company exposed your address in a data breach, and you can simply stop using a compromised alias without changing your main email address.

However, until Apple fixes the issue, you shouldn’t rely on the Hide My Email feature as the only way to keep your real email address private.

Meanwhile, keep an eye open for Apple’s promised security update.

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Researchers say Apple’s Hide My Email flaw may expose real addresses, despite two fixes. Here’s what users should know about the privacy risk.

The post Apple’s ‘Hide My Email’ Privacy Flaw Exposes Real Email Addresses appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple has long marketed itself as the privacy-first tech giant. So why is it making a change to Hide My Email that will make it easier for websites to block anonymous sign-ups - and harder for you to stay private online? Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.