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Hide My Email - Too much friction? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by michaelporter@lemmy.ca to c/apple_enthusiast@lemmy.world

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Request for advice at the end of this!

I want to use a throwaway email, using iCloud's Hide My Email, in a web form.

How it is (I think):

Open System Settings (which always seems to default to Appearance, for some reason)
Click on Name/Apple ID
Click on iCloud
Click on Hide My Email
Click "+"
Fill in a label (I usually just put the URL)
Click Continue
Click Copy address
Go back to web form and paste.

9 steps! Or 10, depending on how you're counting.

How it should be:

I click or right-click on the email field in the web form
My Mac asks me if I want to create a new email, I click yes (A new email is created, filled in, and registered in my list of email aliases, with no further input from me)

2 steps.

Apple really likes to suggest that things "just work" so they hide things. I think they've lost their way with respect to usability. Sorry, ranting.

Request(s) for advice

Is the quick method already possible somewhere in the UI, and I'm just missing it? If it isn't already there, does anyone have a solution, say a script for a service, that would accomplish this?

I would appreciate any advice, instructions, or even just commiseration on hidden UIs. Thanks 😊

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[–] muddybulldog@mylemmy.win 2 points 1 year ago

I was thrilled with Apple's hide my email when it was announced. Then I went through the process and abandoned it.

It was much less friction to just register a new domain and have anything that arrives there forwarded to my main email box. Need a new email, just generate a random string of characters and add the domain at the end, done.

While not as "private" it mitigates my primary concerns. Every website that uses email address for login now has a completely unique one, no email address ever gets used twice. If an email leaks in a breach and starts getting spammed, (a) I know exactly who leaked my email address, (b) I simply create a rule to blacklist any email to that address avoiding the spam problem.