Changing email domains can create chaos for website and email client administrators. After concerns were raised over Hide My Email changing to private.icloud.com, Apple has shifted course.
The decision was made after strong community pushback about the change to Hide My Email.
Existing email addresses won't see any change and forwarding will still work without interruption.
The primary problem with changing the expected domain a user might utilize when creating an account is web developers and email administrators will have to address that change directly. It's a problem that will go away with time, but moving Hide My Email could create problems with the service on a wide scale right away.
On the other hand, Hide My Email can be used anywhere without the website admins knowing whether it will be used or not. That would require wider adoption of the new domain on white lists to prevent email interruptions.
However, that wasn't the only concern related to the Hide My Email domain.
The reason why Hide My Email is effective at all is because it generates emails that use the same domain normal Apple Account email addresses use. Of course, there's also me.com, mac.com, and other older domains, but icloud.com is the norm today.
Of course, it is important to remember that Hide My Email is a privacy tool, not something that will hide you from Apple or consequences. Apple still associates a Hide My Email address with your account, which means emails sent from that account can be subpoenaed.
It also isn't foolproof, as we've seen with bugs bypassing the system. While Apple has patched the issue that would leak user's real iCloud email, don't count on it for absolute anonymity, but instead treat it as a way to identify and control sources of spam.
