What are Apple's privaterelay.apple.com and hide my email and how should they be handled in email marketing?

Key findings

• Two primary services: privaterelay.apple.com is associated with 'Sign in with Apple', providing a unique alias for each app or website. 'Hide My Email' creates disposable or anonymous aliases typically forwarding to an @icloud.com address.
• Distinction from disposable emails: Unlike traditional disposable email services, Apple's aliases are tied to a user's active Apple ID and are not typically used for mass account farming due to Apple's limitations.
• Impact on open rates: Mail Privacy Protection, a related feature, pre-fetches email content, making traditional pixel-based open rate tracking less reliable. This means marketers must reassess how they measure engagement.
• Deliverability implications: Treating these addresses as disposable or blocking them can prevent legitimate subscribers from receiving desired communications, negatively impacting sender reputation and customer relationships. For more on this, consider reading about the deliverability impacts of Apple's private relay service.
• User control: Users retain the ability to disable or revoke these aliases at any time, emphasizing the temporary nature of some engagements.
• Privacy enhancement: Apple's Mail Privacy Protection is designed to shield user IP addresses and prevent profiling based on email activity, reinforcing a broader trend towards increased user privacy.

Key considerations

• List hygiene: Marketers should not automatically block or remove these addresses, especially privaterelay.apple.com addresses used with 'Sign in with Apple,' as they often represent engaged users.
• Engagement metrics: Shift focus from open rates to other metrics like clicks, conversions, and direct website engagement to accurately measure campaign performance, especially when considering why open rates might be lower at Apple domains.
• Customer support: Train support staff to understand how Apple's email aliases work and how to help customers locate their real email addresses in Apple settings, improving customer experience.
• Authentication: Ensure proper email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are in place, as Apple places a strong emphasis on authenticated email for deliverability.

Key opinions

• Perceived disposability: Some marketers initially considered Apple's anonymous emails to be similar to disposable addresses and advocated for blocking them. However, it's increasingly understood that this is not always the case, as many users want ongoing communication.
• Blocking challenges: Marketers recognize that blocking privaterelay.apple.com can prevent reaching subscribers who use 'Sign in with Apple,' while blocking Hide My Email addresses would effectively block all @icloud.com users.
• Customer service friction: A significant pain point is the disconnect between the anonymous email address marketers receive and the user's actual email, leading to difficulties in customer support interactions when users provide their personal email.
• Anonymous vs. Disposable: Many marketers now prefer the term 'anonymous' over 'disposable' for Apple's addresses, acknowledging they are not designed for bulk abuse like services such as Mailinator.
• Long-term relationships: Marketers report instances where users explicitly want ongoing emails to their anonymous addresses, indicating these are not always short-term engagements (e.g., signing up for loyalty programs).

Key considerations

• Adapt list management: Review current blocklist policies to ensure they do not inadvertently prevent reaching legitimate Apple users. Consider the nuances of which email domains marketers should avoid.
• Support team training: Upskill customer support teams on how Apple's private relay and Hide My Email services function, including how users can find their alias addresses in Apple settings. This is crucial for resolving customer queries.
• Shift engagement metrics: Move beyond reliance on open rates, as Apple's privacy features impact email tracking, and instead prioritize metrics like clicks, conversions, and direct website engagement to gauge campaign success.

Key opinions

• Fundamental shift: Experts agree that Apple's privacy features fundamentally alter traditional email tracking methods, particularly open rate metrics, due to pre-fetching content, requiring a re-evaluation of campaign performance.
• Focus on other metrics: It is crucial for senders to adapt their engagement measurements, moving beyond open rates to focus more on click-throughs, conversions, and direct website activity.
• Respect for privacy: These privacy features signal a broader industry trend towards greater user control over data. Marketers who respect this trend will likely maintain better sender reputations and deliverability.
• Legitimate subscribers: Email experts caution against automatically filtering or blocklisting @privaterelay.apple.com addresses, as they often represent legitimate and engaged subscribers who value privacy.
• Distinct from disposable: The 'Hide My Email' feature differs from typical disposable email services because it is tied to an active Apple ID, providing a legitimate and controlled forwarding mechanism.

Key considerations

• Authentication is key: Implementing robust email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is critical when sending to Apple relay addresses to ensure optimal deliverability, aligning with Apple's strict authentication requirements.
• Customer experience: The challenges posed by these privacy features extend beyond technical implementation to customer support, necessitating that staff understand how users interact with these aliases.
• Content and segmentation: Prioritize audience segmentation and personalized content to maintain engagement, as traditional open-rate-based re-engagement strategies may become less effective due to Mail Privacy Protection.
• Avoid alienation: Treating these addresses as traditional bounces or invalid emails can lead to alienating valuable subscribers and negatively impacting list quality over time. For general advice on managing email blocklists, consult our guide.

Key findings

• Purpose of aliases: Documentation confirms that 'Hide My Email' allows users to generate unique, random email addresses that forward to their personal inbox, thereby keeping their actual address private.
• Privacy mechanism: Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) protects user privacy by preventing senders from learning information about email activity, such as IP address and whether an email has been opened.
• Domain association: When a user enables 'Hide My Email', Apple generates a unique, randomized email address at the @privaterelay.appleid.com domain.
• Email routing: All emails exchanged between a sender and a user using an anonymous address are handled through a private relay, ensuring the user's personal email remains hidden from the sender.
• iCloud+ feature: Both Private Relay and Hide My Email are presented as premium features within iCloud+, emphasizing their role in Apple's broader privacy ecosystem.

Key considerations

• Integrate 'Sign in with Apple': Documentation suggests that organizations should integrate with 'Sign in with Apple' to ensure seamless communication with users who choose to use generated anonymous addresses. For a deeper dive, check documentation on authenticating for Apple private relay.
• Privacy compliance: Marketers must understand that Apple's privacy features are designed to prevent the creation of user profiles based on email activity, which necessitates a shift in data collection and usage practices.
• Network preparedness: While more relevant to network administrators, Apple's documentation on preparing networks for iCloud Private Relay reinforces Apple's control over the traffic originating from its devices.
• User revocability: Apple's terms of service clearly state that users can generate and revoke these unique email addresses, highlighting their potentially temporary nature from a subscriber management perspective.