How to activate the Safari VPN, iCloud Private Relay, in iPadOS and iOS
If you have the iCloud+ subscription, you can use Apples VPN service. They call it iCloud Private Relay and it hides your real IP address and encrypts information you send and receive over the internet in Safari.
Go to Settings > [your name at the top left of the page] > iCloud > Private Relay (Beta) and tap the switch to activate it.
”iCloud Private Relay is designed to protect your privacy by ensuring that when you browse the web in Safari, no single party – not even Apple – can see both who you are and what sites you're visiting.”
To read all the details about iCloud Private Relay, visit:
Best regards, Niklas 🎈
If you want to know more about VPN’s and choosing the right one for you, read this post:
Best regards, Niklas 🎈
I asked myself that question before I wrote the headline, since Apple doesn’t call it a VPN service. They are doing it a bit differently than traditional VPN services. This is what Apple writes about iCloud Private Relay:
”When Private Relay is enabled, your requests are sent through two separate, secure internet relays. Your IP address is visible to your network provider and to the first relay, which is operated by Apple. Your DNS records are encrypted, so neither party can see the address of the website you’re trying to visit. The second relay, which is operated by a third-party content provider, generates a temporary IP address, decrypts the name of the website you requested and connects you to the site. All of this is done using the latest internet standards to maintain a high-performance browsing experience while protecting your privacy.”
Your real IP address is not visible to anyone other than your network provider and the first Apple relay server. Your DNS records are encrypted and not visible to Apple or your network provider. The URL you request is only visible to the second relay server and the target website. The content sent between you and the website you visit, is encrypted in both directions provided SSL (https) is used.
Unless there is something I have missed, this doesn’t let anyone use my browsing for identification, targeting or eavesdropping. SSL isn’t done by Private Relay, but isn’t the sum of all this that no one can spy on my web browsing unless they do it in Safari or the server at the other end?
What they don’t do, that VPN’s often does, is:
Protect anything else than your use of Safari.
Promise to not store any logs of traffic through the servers.
Fake a location other than the country you are physically in.
Best regards, Niklas 🎈
- Edited by Niklas 2021-10-12, 16:44