12 Macworld • January 2022NEWS
IP or the contents of your browsing
traffic. It’s not a VPN, though. Not
quite. There are important differences,
which we’ll describe here. But iCloud
Private Relay may be enough for
most people, giving the most obvious
benefits of a VPN to millions of users
who would never consider signing up
for one. Here’s what this Private Relay
feature is, how it works, and how it’s
different from a traditional VPN.HOW DO YOU TURN ON
iCLOUD PRIVATE RELAY?
iCloud Private Relay is a free upgrade
in iOS 15 for anyone who pays for
iCloud storage either separately or as
part of an Apple One bundle. To turn it
on, head to the Settings app, then tap
your Apple ID name at the top. Then
tap iCloud and Private Relay (Beta)
and flip the toggle green to turn it on.
You can also choose between two IP
address locations: General ‘so that
websites can provide local content in
Safari’ or broader country and time
zone for more anonymity.WHAT IS iCLOUD
PRIVATE RELAY?
When Private Relay is enabled, all of
your browsing activity in Safari will
be routed through two Internet ‘hops’
or relays. Your data is encryptedand 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.co.uk’ to a specific server
IP address) and your iPhone, iPad
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 or where you are). Neither party
can piece together a complete
picture of both who you are and
where you’re going.
The website you’re visiting
typically gets your exact IP address
and DNS request, so it can easily
build a pretty detailed profile of
exactly who you are, where you
are, and where you’re going online.