iOS 15 'iCloud Private Relay' Feature Won't Be Available in China, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and More

[MacRumors]

Alongside iOS 15, Apple introduced an iCloud+ service that adds new features to its paid iCloud plans. One of these features is iCloud Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it.

Apple did not mention country limitations for the feature when announcing it, but Apple told Reuters that Private Relay will not be launching in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines,

According to Apple, regulatory reasons are preventing the Private Relay feature from launching in those countries.

Private Relay sends web traffic to a server that is maintained by Apple to strip the IP address. Once IP info has been removed, Apple sends the traffic to a second server maintained by a third-party company that assigns a temporary IP address and then sends the traffic to its destination, a process that prevents your IP address, location, and browsing activity from being used to create a profile about you.

Involving an outside party in the relay system is an intentional move that Apple says was designed to prevent anyone, including Apple, from knowing a user's identity and the website the user is visiting.

iCloud Private Relay is available with any paid iCloud storage plan, and Apple has not changed pricing, so upgraded iCloud storage tiers start at $0.99. iCloud+ also includes a new Hide My Email feature that lets you create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox, and it allows for iCloud Mail addresses to be personalized with a custom domain name.

Article Link: iOS 15 'iCloud Private Relay' Feature Won't Be Available in China, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and More

 

[hot-gril]

That's how you know it's good.

 

[countryside]

HA, shocker. It must be really effective.

I wonder why Apple didn't want to say it won't be available in China during WWDC? Too scared to admit they are an authoritarian regime that doesn't align with their privacy or human-rights values?

 

[fwmireault]

The list of excluded countries says it all

 

[Techwatcher]

Of course it's not available in China. No one is surprised at the nonsense of the CCP. Anyways... Apple is doing the right thing. Might not even need my 3rd party VPN anymore.

 

[jimbobb24]

So brave Apple. Please lecture us more on your virtue while joining in on denying basic human rights in other countries.

 

[countryside]

Of course it's not available in China. No one is surprised at the nonsense of the CCP. Anyways... Apple is doing the right thing. Might not even need my 3rd party VPN anymore.

Do you know if it is Safari-only? Or system-wide? If system-wide I will ditch ExpressVPN.

 

[Techwatcher]

Do you know if it is Safari-only? Or system-wide? If system-wide I will ditch ExpressVPN.

Not sure yet. System-wide would be amazing. Currently use Surfshark.

 

[HiVolt]

The list of excluded countries says it all

Yep pretty much all authoritarian regimes...

Wonder why Russia isn't listed?

 

[hot-gril]

Do you know if it is Safari-only? Or system-wide? If system-wide I will ditch ExpressVPN.

The article says all data leaving your device, so probably system-wide.

 

[Kung gu]

So brave Apple. Please lecture us more on your virtue while joining in on denying basic human rights in other countries.

Apple can't just enable things if governments stop them. Clearly Apple is not at fault here, blame the governments that ban this from becoming a reality in those countries.

 

[BWhaler]

So brave Apple. Please lecture us more on your virtue while joining in on denying basic human rights in other countries.

so it’s ok for companies to break laws as they see fit? Be careful what you wish for.

 

[iDento]

Yep pretty much all authoritarian regimes...

Wonder why Russia isn't listed?

Iran and Korea aren’t there because iCloud doesn’t even exist there.

 

[Eweie]

Yep pretty much all authoritarian regimes...

Wonder why Russia isn't listed?

because Russia is based.

 

[hot-gril]

So brave Apple. Please lecture us more on your virtue while joining in on denying basic human rights in other countries.

They can either comply or get banned. I don't think Apple is very altruistic, but even if they were fully, there is a case for keeping the foot in the door rather than burning bridges.

 

[Eweie]

and if it was only "authoritarian regimes" the US would be listed too.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I am not surprised by this and neither should anyone else who knows the history.

 

[jz0309]

So why is Russia not on the list but the Philippines is? Baffling…

 

[McKodiak]

Will this apply to an Apple One subscription? When does this become available?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Surprised Russia is not included.

 

[haruhiko]

South Korea too?

 

[madrigal77]

Chy-nah!!

 

[kstotlani]

Is this apple VPN in short?

iCloud private relay = VPN? Of course without the ability to change countries to watch some video streaming service.

 

[citysnaps]

So brave Apple. Please lecture us more on your virtue while joining in on denying basic human rights in other countries.

Apple publicly says that it complies with laws in all countries in which they have operations. Don't like that? No worries, simply purchase your tech products from companies that don't have operations in China.

On that subject I assume you bravely don't own *any* products manufactured in China, right?

 

[hot-gril]

I'm absolutely not going to get into discussing politics with strangers on an Internet forum (why would anyone?!) so this will be my first and last comment on the subject but... The Communist Party of China only stick to a communist doctrine when it suits them! Hell, they're more capitalist than most Capitalists when it's in their own interests.

Well he said "democracy" with no mention of capitalism/communism. Those are separate. I think it's accurate to say China isn't a democratic nation.