

During early use, some users have even experienced serious Safari slowdowns with Private Relay turned on. The main downside you could see when using the feature is slower internet speeds. ICloud Private Relay is available with iCloud+ and the feature only works with Safari in iOS 15 on iPhone and iPad and Mac with macOS Monterey. This separation of information protects the user’s privacy because no single entity can identify both who a user is and which sites they visit.Īpple’s VP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, also elaborated more on iCloud Private Relay in an interview, including, “We hope users believe in Apple as a trustworthy intermediary, but we didn’t even want you to have to trust us we don’t have this ability to simultaneously source your IP and the destination where you’re going to–and that’s unlike VPNs.”

The second decrypts the web address they want to visit and forwards them to their destination. The first assigns the user an anonymous IP address that maps to their region but not their actual location. All the user’s requests are then sent through two separate internet relays. When browsing with Safari, Private Relay ensures all traffic leaving a user’s device is encrypted, so no one between the user and the website they are visiting can access and read it, not even Apple or the user’s network provider. At face value, it sounds like a VPN, but it’s notably different with the process including “two separate internet relays.” The second relay means even Apple doesn’t know who users are and the sites they’re visiting.

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Here’s how to turn on/off iCloud Private Relay on iPhone and iPad in iOS 15.Īpple announced iCloud Private Relay as part of its enhanced iCloud+ features at WWDC with the feature live in the iOS 15. But while the feature boasts total encryption, there is a potential downside with keeping it enabled. One of the new security features arriving with iOS 15 brings a new level of privacy to web browsing beyond what VPNs offer.
