Apple's most overlooked privacy product costs just 99 cents.
Despite AI hunting and filtering and upgraded security, spam and data hacks remain a widespread issue.
Just recently, vpnMentor reported an enormous leak of '184 million logins and passwords,' including sensitive logins tied to banks, government portals, and health services. Jeremy Fowler, who discovered the data breach, said: “I saw thousands of files that included emails, usernames, passwords, and the URL links to the login or authorisation for the accounts.”
Also with Google's new AI Gemini update to Gmail, adding an extra layer of security will be more useful - especially considering there’s a good chance you’re already paying for it.
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It's not flashy and you probably won't impress anyone at a party with it. But in this day and age of technology, keeping your data private matters more than ever.
It's called Hide My Email, and it acts as a cover for potential hackers and malicious spam. Most surprisingly, many iPhone users have no idea it exists.
Hide My Email lets you create unlimited disposable email aliases that you can use when signing up for websites, apps or newsletters. These aliases forward messages to your real inbox, but keep your actual email address hidden.
If the alias becomes compromised for whatever reason, users can simply delete it without having to sacrifice their main email.
Fast Company has even called it 'the best Apple product you aren’t using,' while tech site How-To Geek said Hide My Email is 'more important than ever.'
If you’re subscribed to iCloud+, you already have access to Hide My Email. For those who aren’t, plans start at just 99 cents per month.
Over on Reddit, iPhone users have been praising the feature.
"The hide my email feature in iCloud though legitimately gives me the feeling of increased value for the purchase of iCloud, which obviously I already was using and felt was worth it," one Reddit user shared. "It’s nice being able to have different emails randomly created on the fly, all heading back to one email and being able to simply turn off forwarding and/or delete the forwarding email addresses at will."
They added that it 'eliminates most of the need and annoyance of going through email and individually blocking obnoxious possibly law-breaking [...] corporations and such.'
Another Reddit user commented: "It’s a great feature that is unfortunately buried deep in the settings app".
Others are hoping the tech giant expands the feature into other areas of personal data.
"If Apple had some sort of “Hide My Phone Number” and “Hide My Card” for online payments that aren’t done through Apple Pay (like Privacy.com), it would be perfect!" one user suggested.