Never give out your email again with iPhone privacy features

Avoid being tracked on the internet or having to give out your email with two iPhone features that will boost privacy and data protection.

New Apple features can help limit tracking of a user's iPhone activity. Picture: Brittany Hosea-Small / AFP

Your data is not your own. At least that of which has been gathered about you via your online browsing activity, your social media accounts and the dozens of online competitions you’ve entered with your email address among other personal details and are still yet to win.

And while you could spend all day wondering just how to find out exactly what data companies have gathered about you and what you can do to remove or delete as much as possible, your time may be better spent limiting what data can be collected from you from this point forward.

Within the Apple ecosystem, there are two relatively new features which have benefits that all users should consider.

These features can limit tracking of your IP address (the address of a device connected to the internet) as well as allow email function without giving away your email address – allowing you enter all the competitions you like while being able to stop those emails whenever you wish.

Private Relay

This function, accessible via the iCloud section in settings, effectively limits both of your DNS records and IP address being seen by the websites you visit and your internet provider.

It works by using two separate internet relays, one operated by Apple and the other by a third party.

The new iPhone 14 Pro on display in Cupertino, California. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

The functions work so well that not even Apple can see both your DNS (Domain Name System) and IP (internet Protocol) address – two key identifying features a company can use to build a data profile on you.

While your IP address will still be visible to your network provider and the first relay (operated by Apple), DNS records are encrypted.

The second relay generates a temporary IP address and decrypts website addresses and connects you to the website.

Hide My Email

Apple iPhone users would have begun noticing this feature last year when companies began to ask for an email address via a web form.

This feature, in short, generates a randomised email with an @icloud.com address which connects to the nominated email address associated with an Apple account.

Whenever an email is sent to the randomised address it is then forwarded through iCloud to the associated personal email.

Why use this feature?

iPhone users can generate randomised emails which forward to email account of their choosing which is linked to their Apple account. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

Do you remember the competition forms which used to hang off aisles in grocery stores? The purpose was not so you could win a brand-new car or an island holiday but rather so companies could gather your data and begin to market products to you via the information you provided.

In the digital age, these types of competitions are everywhere you look from your social media feed to the clothing store you browsed just before.

Online, these forms already have much more data on you than any grocery store fill-out form ever did with the help of cookies, the location you access the internet from and more.

With the Hide My Email function, users have the option to delete the randomised address and remove and future emails whenever they choose.

Bonus features

In the privacy and security section of settings, users can, under the tracking option, deselect ‘Allow Apps to Request to Track’, limiting an application’s ability to track activity across apps and websites.

You will also be able to see each app that has requested to track your web activity.

When asked whether you should allow an app to track your location, thoroughly consider the reason. Your weather app and rideshare apps have a far more genuine, if not necessary, reason for knowing your location compared to a messaging app.

Turning on ‘Mail Privacy Protection’ will hide your IP address and privately load content making it difficult for senders to track your email activity.

Author’s note: these features are only available to those with an iCloud+ subscription.

Originally published as Never give out your email again with iPhone privacy features