Should I suppress Apple private relay addresses and how to handle them?

Key findings

• Legitimacy: Apple Private Relay addresses are legitimate and valid if acquired through official Apple registration processes (e.g., Sign in with Apple), not third-party data or purchased lists.
• User Intent: Users who opt for these private addresses are often highly interested and engaged with your service or app, making them valuable subscribers.
• Bounce Handling: Treat these addresses like any other email address. If they consistently soft or hard bounce, apply standard suppression rules. Learn more about what soft bouncing means for these accounts.
• No Blanket Suppression: Blindly suppressing all Apple Private Relay addresses can lead to missing out on engaged users and is not a recommended practice for good deliverability.

Key considerations

• Opt-in Processes: Ensure your email acquisition methods are robust, utilizing double opt-in and CAPTCHA to verify subscriber intent and deter bots.
• Apple Registration: For seamless communication, ensure your development team has properly configured your system for communicating using the private email relay service.
• Engagement Segmentation: Segment your audience based on engagement to naturally filter out unengaged or non-deliverable addresses, regardless of whether they are private relay addresses or not.
• Deliverability Impacts: Understand the broader email deliverability impacts of Apple’s service.

Key opinions

• Engaged Users: Many marketers believe that users who go through the effort of using a private relay address are genuinely interested and should be mailed.
• List Quality Indicator: If private relay addresses are appearing on purchased lists, it’s a strong indication of poor list quality.
• Anti-bot Measures: Marketers frequently emphasize that double opt-in and CAPTCHA are crucial tools to prevent bots from submitting invalid private relay addresses and generating spam complaints.
• Similar Handling: These addresses should be treated no differently than any other email address when it comes to deliverability, including proper bounce management.

Key considerations

• Source Verification: Always verify the source of these addresses; if they aren't from direct user sign-ups via Apple, investigate for potential abuse.
• Engagement Tracking: Even without direct open tracking, continue to track clicks and other positive engagement to maintain a healthy list. Learn how to increase email click through rate.
• Suppression for Bounces: If a private relay address consistently soft bounces, it should be suppressed to protect your sender reputation, similar to how you would block disposable email addresses.
• Apple's Management: Marketers should be aware that Apple offers users tools to manage or disable these relay emails, as highlighted by Maileroo Blog on Apple's Private Relay addresses.

Key opinions

• No Suppression: Experts strongly recommend against blanket suppression of @privaterelay.appleid.com addresses if they are legitimately acquired.
• Source Verification: If these addresses are appearing from sources other than direct Apple sign-ins, it suggests an issue with lead generation quality.
• Proactive Protection: Implementing both CAPTCHA and double opt-in is considered the safest configuration to prevent bot-generated sign-ups that can lead to spam complaints.
• Engagement Filtering: Segmenting based on prior engagement is an effective way to implicitly exclude non-deliverable addresses, including soft bounces.

Key considerations

• Registration with Apple: Ensure your sending domain is properly registered with Apple to facilitate communication with these relay addresses.
• Monitor Bounces: While legitimate, if these addresses consistently soft bounce, they should be suppressed to maintain sender reputation. This aligns with general advice on how Apple Relay affects sender reputation.
• ESP Understanding: Understand how your email service provider handles emails sent through Apple Private Relay and their bounce management.
• List Hygiene: Prioritize strict list hygiene and source validation to ensure the quality of your subscriber list, regardless of the email address type. SpamResource provides insights on Apple's private email methods.

Key findings

• Privacy Focused: Apple Private Relay is primarily designed to protect user privacy by obscuring their IP addresses and generating unique, anonymous email addresses.
• Sign in with Apple Integration: These private relay addresses are commonly created when users choose the "Hide My Email" option during the "Sign in with Apple" process.
• Valid Addresses: Documentation confirms that these addresses are valid and intended for legitimate communication, requiring senders to treat them as such.
• Network Adaptation: Apple recommends that networks and web servers be prepared for the distinctive traffic patterns associated with iCloud Private Relay.

Key considerations

• Developer Registration: To effectively communicate with users via these addresses, senders need to be properly registered as developers within the Apple ecosystem, as highlighted in Customer.io's documentation.
• Email Authentication: Strong email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is vital to ensure emails sent to private relay addresses are delivered. Understand how Apple Private Relay encodes email addresses.
• User Control: Users retain full control over their generated private relay addresses, including the ability to disable them at any time, as noted in Apple's legal documentation on iCloud Private Relay.
• Treating IP Addresses: It is advised to treat Private Relay IP addresses similarly to carrier-grade NAT or enterprise IP addresses to properly manage traffic.