Photo: Khamosh Pathak
You should think twice before giving out your real email address to a random business or a website. Not only can it lead to spam, but your email address can also end up in a marketing database.
This is where burner email (fake email) services come in handy. But you don’t need to worry about choosing a new service to trust if you’re already paying for iCloud (or if you’re using Firefox, you can also use Firefox Private Relay). iCloud+ (any paid iCloud plan) has a built-in Hide My Email feature that will let you generate unique burner email addresses for free.
You can then use these email addresses to sign up for a service, and the emails will be forwarded to your inbox. The best part? You can deactivate an email address in seconds.
How to set up a burner email with “Hide My Email”
The Hide My Email feature is available in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. On your iPhone or iPad, open the “Settings” app, and tap your profile from the top. Go to the “iCloud” section and choose the “Hide My Email” option. If you have used the Sign in with Apple feature before, you’ll see some unique addresses here already.
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First, scroll down and go to the “Forward to” section. Here, choose the email address where you want to receive the forwarded emails. You can choose from any email address that you have added in the Settings app. Tap “Done” to save your settings. Then, back in the “Hide my Email” section, tap “Create New Address.”
iCloud will generate a random address for you. If you don’t like it, tap the “Use Different Address” option to generate another one (there’s no option to create an address manually). Give the address a label, add a note, and tap “Next.” And you’re all set. Tap “Done” to go back to the Hide my Email section.
Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak
Now, choose the email address you just created where you’ll be able to see the full email address. Simply tap on it and choose the “Copy” option to copy it to your clipboard.
You can also change the forwarding address and the label from here. And when you’re done with the email address, tap “Deactivate Email Address” and choose the “Deactivate” option from the popup to confirm.
Hide My Email works automatically as well
When you sign up for a new account in iOS 15, you should see Hide My Email appear in the AutoFill tab. Tap that, and Apple will generate a burner email for you. Tap the arrow to generate a new email, make a note to remember the email’s purpose, or tap iCloud Settings to head back to the Hide My Email settings page. When you’re ready, just tap “Use.”
Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak
