Apple's hide my email hides from tracking

I’m precious about my email.

I try to keep an inbox zero, and have spent a lot of time playing with the best options to streamline it.

When a business asks for my email I’ve often been hesitant, reluctant to share it. Does CVS really need that information just because I’m buying a candy bar?

Sometimes the wrong company gets hold of my contact and spams me endlessly. I hit unsucribe to no avail.

HEY.com has an interesting approach to this, keeping all emails out of your inbox until you allow them. But still you have to deal with unwanted junk cluttering up your screener. It’s a partial solution, but doesn’t fully solve the problem.

Recently a friend shared that he’s been using Apple’s Hide My Email feature, so I’ve started testing it. When I sign up for some new software, especially if I’m not sure about my commitment to it yet, I just use Safari’s auto fill plus Apple Passwords to generate an email and save the auto generated password.

It works like magic.

It’s instant, easy, and if one of those emails gets in the wrong hands I can simply go into my Apple account and shut it off.

At this point I’m inclined to never give out my true email on any signup form again. Too many companies have treated that information as a data point to sell off and spam me.

I’m now nearly 20 iCloud hidden email addresses. We’ll see how this goes next.