Apple to unify Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email domains

Apple is unifying the email domains for its privacy-focused email relay services, a technical change that privacy advocates warn could inadvertently make anonymous online accounts easier for websites to identify and potentially block. The company announced that new email addresses generated by its "Sign in with Apple" and iCloud+ "Hide My Email" features will soon use a shared domain, private.icloud.com, with the rollout expected to begin later this summer.

Currently, the two services use separate domains. "Sign in with Apple" creates addresses under privaterelay.appleid.com, while "Hide My Email" generates aliases using the standard icloud.com domain. The new, dedicated private.icloud.com domain will apply to all new addresses created through either feature going forward. Apple emphasized that existing email addresses on the legacy domains will continue to function normally, with emails forwarded to users' personal inboxes without interruption.

While Apple frames the shift as a backend unification for consistency, privacy experts and some users have raised immediate concerns. The core issue is that anonymous addresses will no longer be indistinguishable from regular Apple user...