Macworld - USA (2021-08)

104 MACWORLD AUGUST 2021

WORKINGMAC i CLOUD+ PRIVATE RELAY

through two internet “hops,” or relays. Your

data is encrypted and then sent to Apple,

so your ISP can’t see any of your web

browsing requests. Once at Apple’s proxy

server, the DNS request (the thing that

points a domain name like “macworld.

com” to a specific server IP address) and

your iPhone or Mac’s IP address are

separated. Your IP address is retained by

Apple, while your DNS request is passed

on, encrypted, to a “trusted partner” that

has the decryption key, along with a fake

intermediary IP address that is based on

your approximate location. Apple didn’t

name its partners, but some web sleuths

have figured out that they are major

internet backbone companies such as

Akami, Cloudfare, and Fastly.

This means that Apple knows your IP

address but

not the name

of the sites

you’re visiting,

and the

trusted partner

knows the site

you’re visiting

but not your IP

(and therefore

not who you

are). Neither

party can

piece together

a complete

Here’s what this Private Relay feature is,
how it works, and how it’s different from
a traditional VPN.

WHAT IS iCLOUD PRIVATE
RE L AY?
Once you upgrade to iOS 15, you’ll find a
new setting in the iCloud Settings menu:
Private Relay. Assuming that you pay for
any iCloud plan and therefore have the
iCloud+ service, you can simply turn on
this switch to enable iCloud Private Relay.
That’s it—nothing to install or configure.
There’s an IP Address Location setting that
lets you preserve your approximate
location or use a broader location, but
most users can ignore that.
When this is enabled, all of your
browsing activity in Safari will be routed