iOS 16 New Feature: iCloud Privacy Relay Supports Hiding More Data

As part of the new iCloud+ subscription service launched at WWDC 2021, Apple has launched iCloud Private Relay (privacy relay). This feature is designed to provide users with an additional layer of privacy and security by sending requests over two separate Internet relays to mask user information. The feature is currently available to iCloud+ subscribers as an optional “Beta” feature, but a new report suggests that this year’s iOS 16 could change that.

A new report from Digiday, citing “multiple sources,” says that Apple plans to roll out some new features for iOS 16 this year to further crackdown on the tracking of user data. One of the industry sources cited in the article is Charles Manning, CEO of mobile analytics measurement company Kochava.

Manning explained that he thinks Apple will strengthen its focus on privacy by expanding Privacy Relay:

“The impact of policy enforcement combined with Apple’s heritage of creating technical guardrails suggests that they will rely on privacy relays as (or part of) a technical enforcement mechanism.

I’m sure Apple will announce that customers love privacy relay, and it’s so successful that they’ll make it an always-on feature for in-app behavior. ”

For now, the iCloud Privacy Relay primarily provides Safari traffic to iCloud+ subscribers. It doesn’t work with most other in-app traffic outside of Safari and some features in Mail. However, if the sources cited in this report are correct, Apple could expand Private Relay as an always-on feature for other in-app traffic.

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Apple has done some IP rerouting for all users in Safari when visiting HTTP sites. This rerouting is done for all users, regardless of whether the user has iCloud Privacy Relay enabled.