Apple: iCloud Private Relay will not work in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Monday said a new “private relay” feature designed to obscure a user's web browsing behavior …
Reuters
Context & Ripple Effects
Private Relay launched as part of Apple’s expanded iCloud+ feature set, built to encrypt device traffic and pass it through relays. The country exclusions establish from the outset that its availability is geographically segmented rather than uniform across iCloud users.
The later coverage shows access also became contested at the network level: European carriers objected and some networks were reported to block the service, while Apple disputed that iOS changes had disabled it. That makes the initial exclusions an early constraint on a privacy product dependent on both national and carrier-level access.
First-order effects
Apple will not offer Private Relay to iCloud users in the ten named countries, leaving those customers without the browsing-obscuring feature included in the broader iCloud+ rollout.
Apple must operate Private Relay as a market-by-market service instead of presenting its relay-based traffic protection as a universal iCloud benefit.
Second-order effects
Carriers and governments outside the excluded markets gain a clearer precedent for challenging or restricting the VPN-like service, a pressure later reflected in European carrier opposition and reported blocking.
Customers on carrier content-filtering plans face a narrower privacy offering even where Private Relay is otherwise available, as T-Mobile later said those plans would not have access.
Third-order effects
Privacy services that route user traffic through intermediary infrastructure are likely to be governed by the most restrictive access rules in each market, fragmenting feature availability across a global subscription product.
Apple’s ability to bundle privacy features into iCloud plans increasingly depends not only on software delivery but also on accommodation with national and network gatekeepers.
The trend: Consumer privacy features are becoming geographically and network constrained as traffic-routing services collide with local access rules and carrier controls.
I assume this decision isn't a reflection of the spontaneous moralism of Apple, so where is it coming from? What do they see coming that we don't? i.e. increased enforcement of existing laws like SESTA/FOSTA, new laws, new bad press, expansion in China...
“Apple's decision to withhold the feature in China is the latest in a string of compromises the company has made on privacy in a country that accounts for nearly 15% of its revenue” https://www.reuters.com/...
@designatednerd I don't think Apple has a choice here. The PIPL from China, asks companies to store personal information data within China. In order for it to cross borders, a lot of work needs to be dn which can tk months (?!). Apple has a choice to abandon China though https://…
Not first time Apple has chosen to disable privacy features in China: - iCloud data stored in China, encryption keys held by authorities - 1000s of apps censored in China app store, including every reliable VPN and major news sites (see @applecensorship) https://www.reuters.com/.…
That's biz. When it comes to a choice between ethics and commerce, ethics is very rarely given priority. Anyone who expects a commercial organisation to place human welfare over profit is naïve or deluded. https://twitter.com/...
Reminder while Apple is banging the privacy drum that their iCloud stuff in China is stored on servers controlled by the Chinese government. https://www.nytimes.com/... #WWDC
@tehlike It all depends on where one's moral compass lies. Apple has definitely decided that targeted ads are bad while supporting the Chinese government's censorship machine is good. Google as a counter example made the opposite decision about ads and China. Which feels worse to…
“Apple's new ‘private relay’ feature will not be available in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Philippines” Unclear if feature is blocked (via geolocation) there or if citizens can't use it. https://www.reuters.com/...
Huh. So if you don't have enough iCloud space free to backup when moving to a new device, Apple will basically loan it to you for three weeks. https://twitter.com/...
Private Relay is a new internet privacy service that's built right into iCloud, allowing users to connect to and browse the web in a more secure and private way https://www.apple.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Apple is introducing a new iCloud+ feature for paid iCloud plans. It includes a new Private Relay feature that lets you browse Safari more securely. All traffic leaving your device is encrypted so no one can see who you are or what site you're visiting.
Apple's description of its new Private Relay feature: “This separation of information protects the user's privacy because no single entity can identify both who a user is and which sites they visit.” https://www.apple.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@josephfcox Sounds like 2-hop-Tor: enough for casual privacy but not enough that Apple ends up with the Tor Exit Node problem, because truly bad stuff you get together and unite the two logs.