AtData’s Statement on Apple’s ‘Hide My Email’

NEWTON, MA, (July 27, 2021) – In December 2020, Apple introduced it’s ‘Hide My Email’ feature and many companies are still trying to understand what impact this has had or could have on their email marketing databases and programs. To assist marketers in this regard, let’s first dive into the specifics of the Apple’s release:

Apple ‘Hide My Email’ Statement

If you choose to hide your email when you create an account with an app or website using Sign in with Apple, a unique, random email address is created so your personal email can stay private.

A unique, random email address is created, so your personal email address isn’t shared with the app or website developer during the account setup and sign in process. This address is unique to you and the developer and follows this format: <unique-alphanumeric-string>@privaterelay.appleid.com

For example, if [email protected] is your Apple ID, your unique, random email address for a given app might look like [email protected]. This unique relay address can only be used for communication from the specific app or website developer you created the account with. It can’t be reused for other apps or services.

Any messages sent to this address by the app or website developer are automatically forwarded to your personal email address by our private email relay service. You can read and respond directly to these emails and still keep your personal address private.

We don’t read or process any of the content in the email messages that pass through our relay service, except to perform standard spam filtering that’s required to maintain our status as a trusted email provider. All email messages are deleted from our relay servers after they’re delivered to you, usually within seconds.

At any time, you can change the email address that receives forwarded messages from a developer. Or you can choose to turn off email forwarding to stop receiving messages from a developer. You can also choose to share your personal email address with a developer directly from their app or website.

How Does This Affect Validation AtData’s SafeToSend Service Or Results?

No. Since Apple is continuing to accept and forward the newly created email to the user’s primary email address, the ‘Hide My Email’ feature will not affect our SafeToSend service or results. The forwarding email address created using this feature will result deliverable and non-toxic findings so your marketing programs can continue to run as planned.

We’re learning more every day about the effects that Apple’s changes will have on email operations, and we continue to track Apple’s development updates. As new information comes to light, we’ll communicate what it will mean. If there are any questions or immediate concerns, please contact AtData’s service team.