iCloud Mail privacy rating

Summary

iCloud Mail scores 47 out of 100 (grade D) on the email providers criteria. It meets 8 of 19 criteria: no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, open protocols and custom domains. It partly meets encrypted mailbox storage, IMAP support and SMTP submission. It does not meet open source, independent audit, end-to-end encryption, sign up without personal data, POP3 support, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade A+.

Score 47 out of 100. How scoring works

Criteria

• ✖No

  Open source ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Is all the source code needed to run the product public?

  Closed source.

• ✔Yes

  No trackers or telemetry ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?

  Analytics are only shared with Apple with consent, and iCloud.com loads no third-party trackers.

  apple.com

• ✔Yes

  No ads or data sales ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?

  Funded by device sales and iCloud+ subscriptions. No ads, and Apple states that it does not sell personal data.

  apple.com

• ✖No

  Independent audit ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?

  No independent audit is published.

• ✔Yes

  Transparency report ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?

  Apple publishes counts of government and private party requests twice a year.

  apple.com

• ✔Yes

  Tells users about requests ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?

  Apple notifies customers when their account information is sought, unless prohibited by law or in emergencies.

  apple.com

• ✖No

  End-to-end encryption ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Can mail be end-to-end encrypted so that the provider cannot read message contents?

  iCloud Mail is not end-to-end encrypted, even with Advanced Data Protection. S/MIME works in Apple Mail.

  support.apple.com

• ◐Partial

  Encrypted mailbox storage ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Is stored mail encrypted with a key the provider does not hold?

  Mail is encrypted on the server with keys Apple holds.

  support.apple.com

• ✔Yes

  Open protocols ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Can any standard app connect over IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV, without extra software?

  IMAP and SMTP work with other apps. POP3 is not supported.

  support.apple.com

• ✔Yes

  Custom domains ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?

  Available with any iCloud+ subscription.

  support.apple.com

• ✖No

  Sign up without personal data ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Can an account be created without a phone number or another email address?

  Creating an Apple Account asks for a birth date, an email address and a phone number.

  support.apple.com

• ✖No

  Sender Rewriting Scheme ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Is the envelope sender rewritten with SRS when mail is forwarded, so forwarded mail keeps passing SPF?

  No published documentation on SRS for forwarded mail.

• ✖No

  ARC sealing ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the provider validate and add ARC (RFC 8617) signatures, so authentication results survive forwarding?

  No published documentation on ARC signing or validation.

Automated tests

• ✔Yes

  TLS configuration ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?

  Grade A+

  ssllabs.com

• ✔Yes

  Security headers ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?

  Grade A+ (130/100+)

  developer.mozilla.org

• …Not tested yet

  Modern web standards ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?

  Not tested yet.

• …Not tested yet

  Email security standards ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the mail domain score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl email test?

  Not tested yet.

• ◐Partial

  IMAP support ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the IMAP server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 993 and advertise IMAP4rev1 or IMAP4rev2 with IDLE push?

  imap.mail.me.com:993 (implicit TLS). IMAP4rev1 advertised, no IDLE before login.

• ✖No

  POP3 support ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the POP3 server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 995 and answer CAPA with UIDL?

  Not offered.

• ◐Partial

  SMTP submission ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does mail submission work over implicit TLS on port 465 with SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH?

  smtp.mail.me.com:587 (STARTTLS). SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH advertised.

• ✖No

  Mail transport security ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Does the mail domain enforce encrypted, authenticated delivery with MTA-STS, DANE, DNSSEC, TLS-RPT and an enforced DMARC policy?

  Passes: SPF, DMARC quarantine. Missing: MTA-STS missing, TLS-RPT, DNSSEC, DANE none.

Email standards

• ✔Yes: Mail serversMXmx01.mail.icloud.com, mx02.mail.icloud.com
• ✔Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
• ✔Yes: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=quarantine
• ✖No: RFC 8461 strict transport securityMTA-STSmissing
• ✖No: RFC 8460 TLS failure reportsTLS-RPTmissing
• ✖No: RFC 4033 signed DNSDNSSECnot validated
• ✖No: RFC 7672 TLSA records on MX hostsDANEnone
• ✔Yes: Brand logo record (not scored)BIMIpublished
• ✔Yes: RFC 6186 and RFC 8314 service records (not scored)SRVclient autoconfiguration published

Capabilities are what each server advertises before login. How these tests work