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Instead of handing over cumbersome (and likely to get lost) business cards, I like texting my vCard. However, I'd like to not share some of the information in my vCard—most importantly, my home address. Additionally, I taught Siri my entire extended family, which now gets shared with everybody I send my vCard to. This feels less than professional.

Here's the problem: I need my home address in my card if I'm going to get directions to Home using Maps. And I want Siri to know who's in my extended family. But I don't want to share this information when I share my vCard.

I sync my contacts through iCloud, so I was looking at my Mac's Contacts app to see if it had a solution. In Contacts preferences, I found this promising option: "Enable private me card": Contacts preferences vcard - enable private me card

What I was hoping for with a "private me card" was a way to set which pieces of information to share and which ones to keep private on a per card basis with just this one special "me card".

The only other solution I can come up with is to create 2 cards:

  • one for my own private use via Siri, Maps, etc
  • and another for sharing.

The downsides of this solution are that

  • it's inelegant (two vCards for one person) and
  • if a piece of information changes, I have to remember to update two cards, not just one.

Are there other options out there I haven't considered? Are there preferences in iOS, OS X, and/or iCloud that would solve this? And what is a "private me card"?

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2 Answers 2

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Working Solution :

Enable Private Card as you discussed in the Contacts Preferences. Then go to your card. (you can find your private card the one with the head silhouette). Then click on edit, and a bunch of share options will populate to the right of all the fields. Select the ones you wish to share and that will be the only information that is sent when you share you card.

pic1

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  • Thanks! You're right. This worked. You must enable "Private Me Card" to get the share options. Your instructions are spot on.
    – Crowder
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 19:03
  • Also worth noting: When I clicked "edit", my home address was set to "share".
    – Crowder
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 19:04
  • Looks like all new information defaults to "share".
    – Crowder
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 19:05
  • @NathanLucy yeah i've never found a reason to use those fields since I know my own information, the only people I found it useful for was my immediate family, and if I did a private card it wouldn't send to them anyways so it's useless for me to fill out those fields. And another downside, is this is only available to desktops, can't edit this on iOS devices
    – soulshined
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 19:07
  • Right... do you happen to know if the changes made on Mac OS X populate to iOS devices?
    – Crowder
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 19:07
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UPDATE
As of 2022 and iOS 16 we can finally choose which contact information to share... previously this was not possible on iOS, only macOS.

From iPhone and iPad

  1. Open the Contact app or the Phone app and tap Contacts.
  2. Tap and hold the contact you want to share and pick Share from the menu.
  3. Tap Filter Fields.
  4. Uncheck the fields you don’t want to share and tap Done.
  5. Now, share your contact via your preferred medium like Messages, Mail, WhatsApp, etc., and only the selected details will be shared.
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