4 ms·

That timeline was exactly my experience with Apple here - https://www.grepular.com/Apples_Protect_Mail_Activity_Doesnt_Work https://www.grepular.com/Apples_Prot

That timeline was exactly my experience with Apple here - https://www.grepular.com/Apples_Protect_Mail_Activity_Doesnt_Work https://www.grepular.com/Apples_Protect_Mail_Activity_Doesnt... They don't seem to know or care what is going on with their own email systems.

lapcat 3mo ago
Has anyone seen Protect Mail Activity get re-enabled after you've disabled it? I wrote about that a few days ago: https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/6/6.html https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/6/6.html
- AnonC 3mo ago
  Not for me. I don’t even remember when (or since how many years ago) I turned off Protect My Email and turned on both Hide IP Address and Block All Remote Content. I still have these toggles as they are, despite the fact that I use beta releases as and when they’re released (currently still on iOS 26.x).
LoganDark 3mo ago
Fetching any email content is always worse than blocking it, because the typical threshold for spam is "is this inbox monitored". If that is true, then blast it with spam. And fetching anything ever proves that the inbox is monitored.
- layer8 3mo ago
  My impression as a Mutt user (which never downloads linked content) is that spammers don’t really care about whether an inbox is “monitored” or not.
- tyre 3mo ago
  At least in Gmail, downloading content (e.g. images) is disabled by default for suspicious emails. There is no way for the sender to know if it’s monitored unless this is disabled by explicit user action.
  - godelski 3mo ago
    This freaked me out the first time I used Mail. It rendered a PDF about buying bitcoin on PayPal (I don't have PayPal). Looked at the same email in Gmail and Thunderbird, it's just a PDF attachment, no message, and the sender was different. No wonder people are falling for those scams, Mail makes it easy for them. Now if only I had a better client on my phone (never buying an iPhone again)
    - bzbz 3mo ago
      What made you prefer Mail to Gmail, given you don’t seem satisfied with Apple’s Mail app?
      - godelski 3mo ago
        I prefer Thunderbird
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
saagarjha 3mo ago
I’m still mildly annoyed every email I send using Mail has my IP embedded in it
- WA 3mo ago
  Source? I don't think this is true. Doesn't seem to be the case for me. Maybe your email provider attaches your IP address?
  - fckapple 3mo ago
    It’s in the headers. Send an email to your self from Mail and open the source in the inbox. There is your IP.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 3mo ago
      Is this from iOS? I just tested from MacOS, and the only IPs were for the transit and auth servers. I'm not actually doubting it. saagarjha knows his stuff. I just don't see it, so maybe I'm holding it wrong.
      - frollogaston 3mo ago
        Same, I remember it being in the headers long ago but don't see it now. macOS Tahoe, Mail.app client, iCloud email sending to itself or to my Gmail, both set up in default ways, IPv6 disabled
        ChrisMarshallNY 3mo ago
        From what I see above, it looks like the trick is to send from Mail.app to an account read by a different app (maybe just Gmail?). I would need to test with my hosting Webmail client, so maybe tomorrow.
      - fckapple 3mo ago
        See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48758444 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48758444.
jijijijij 3mo ago
I am starting to think all these "privacy" features merely exist as excuse for getting people to hand off their mails to Apple. Clearly the all do not deliver on the intended functionality, but the proxy/relay routing happens to some extent anyway. How convenient. If you were a company promising its users all the privacy, but secretly not giving a fuck beyond collecting user traffic and meta data, wouldn't you expect the state of things to look exactly like that? I mean, how could you explain this any other way, considering the size of Apple and the relative ease of developing such features reliably? Apple is hardly breaking ground here.

lapcat 3mo ago

Has anyone seen Protect Mail Activity get re-enabled after you've disabled it? I wrote about that a few days ago: https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/6/6.html https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/6/6.html

AnonC 3mo ago
Not for me. I don’t even remember when (or since how many years ago) I turned off Protect My Email and turned on both Hide IP Address and Block All Remote Content. I still have these toggles as they are, despite the fact that I use beta releases as and when they’re released (currently still on iOS 26.x).

LoganDark 3mo ago

Fetching any email content is always worse than blocking it, because the typical threshold for spam is "is this inbox monitored". If that is true, then blast it with spam. And fetching anything ever proves that the inbox is monitored.

layer8 3mo ago
My impression as a Mutt user (which never downloads linked content) is that spammers don’t really care about whether an inbox is “monitored” or not.
tyre 3mo ago
At least in Gmail, downloading content (e.g. images) is disabled by default for suspicious emails. There is no way for the sender to know if it’s monitored unless this is disabled by explicit user action.
- godelski 3mo ago
  This freaked me out the first time I used Mail. It rendered a PDF about buying bitcoin on PayPal (I don't have PayPal). Looked at the same email in Gmail and Thunderbird, it's just a PDF attachment, no message, and the sender was different. No wonder people are falling for those scams, Mail makes it easy for them. Now if only I had a better client on my phone (never buying an iPhone again)
  - bzbz 3mo ago
    What made you prefer Mail to Gmail, given you don’t seem satisfied with Apple’s Mail app?
    - godelski 3mo ago
      I prefer Thunderbird
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]

saagarjha 3mo ago

I’m still mildly annoyed every email I send using Mail has my IP embedded in it

WA 3mo ago
Source? I don't think this is true. Doesn't seem to be the case for me. Maybe your email provider attaches your IP address?
- fckapple 3mo ago
  It’s in the headers. Send an email to your self from Mail and open the source in the inbox. There is your IP.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 3mo ago
    Is this from iOS? I just tested from MacOS, and the only IPs were for the transit and auth servers. I'm not actually doubting it. saagarjha knows his stuff. I just don't see it, so maybe I'm holding it wrong.
    - frollogaston 3mo ago
      Same, I remember it being in the headers long ago but don't see it now. macOS Tahoe, Mail.app client, iCloud email sending to itself or to my Gmail, both set up in default ways, IPv6 disabled
      - ChrisMarshallNY 3mo ago
        From what I see above, it looks like the trick is to send from Mail.app to an account read by a different app (maybe just Gmail?). I would need to test with my hosting Webmail client, so maybe tomorrow.
    - fckapple 3mo ago
      See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48758444 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48758444.

jijijijij 3mo ago

I am starting to think all these "privacy" features merely exist as excuse for getting people to hand off their mails to Apple. Clearly the all do not deliver on the intended functionality, but the proxy/relay routing happens to some extent anyway. How convenient. If you were a company promising its users all the privacy, but secretly not giving a fuck beyond collecting user traffic and meta data, wouldn't you expect the state of things to look exactly like that? I mean, how could you explain this any other way, considering the size of Apple and the relative ease of developing such features reliably? Apple is hardly breaking ground here.