iCloud Mail: Apple’s dormant privacy weapon!
Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right and has a dedicated website detailing how Apple protects the privacy of its users, namely:
- Safari: throws trackers off user’s trail
- Maps: location history is not associated with Apple ID
- Photos: on device machine learning
- iMessage: messages only seen by user and not by Apple
- Siri: requests are associated with random identifier and not with Apple ID
- News: content is not based on user identity
- Apple Pay: credit card numbers are hidden from Apple
- Health: controlled access
- App Store: privacy labels on Apps, including apps made by Apple
One notable exception has been iCloud Mail. Email plays a critical role in ourselves. Almost everything we do online, requires an email address.
The email space is dominated by Gmail and Outlook. Neither of which are privacy friendly. Apple proposes iCloud Mail as privacy-friendly alternative. However, since its inception, Apple has done little to improve/enhance the iCloud Mail experience.
I am confident more people would move away from Gmail and Outlook if iCloud Mail was a viable option. The following enhancements are necessary:
- improved search
- reliable email experience (recent frequent outages are frustrating)
- improved web experience
- spy pixel blocking
- custom domain
- Send from external email address using SMTP (similar to Gmail’s send as feature)
- snooze (nice to have, not necessary)
As we approach 2021 WWDC, I hope/wish Apple has email enhancements in store for us. This is a low-hanging fruit begging to be included in the Apple One plan.