Ravie LakshmananJul 21, 2026Vulnerability / Cloud Security
Apple has moved to address a security flaw in its Hide My Email service that enabled users' real email addresses to be unmasked, effectively undermining the feature's privacy guarantees.
404 Media reported Tuesday that a fix for the issue was deployed by Apple on July 3, 2026, after more than a year, when it was disclosed to the company by Tyler Murphy, co-founder of EasyOptOuts.
Hide My Email generates unique, random email addresses that forward messages to a user's personal email inbox automatically. By creating disposable email addresses, the idea is to safeguard user privacy and tackle unwanted spam. The feature requires a paid subscription to iCloud+ and was announced by Apple in June 2021.
However, at the start of the month, details emerged of a flaw that made it possible to unmask a user's real email address hidden behind a Hide My Email address. The issue was first reported to Apple on June 13, 2025, with Apple unsuccessfully attempting to patch it earlier this March and again on June 30, 2026.
