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Apple Seemingly Adds Russia to List of Countries Where iCloud Private Relay Won't Be Available

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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.

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According to Apple, "regulatory reasons" prevent the company from launching Private Relay in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines.

Apple mentioned these country limitations in June, but it seems that Private Relay will not be available in Russia either, after Apple apparently disabled the feature there over the last day or so.

Based on reports from Twitter users and as reported by iPhones.ru, the feature was previously available to use in Russia via beta versions of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, but now when they try to enable it, those same users are met with the message "Private Relay is not supported in this region."

Private Relay works by sending 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.


Why Apple has apparently disabled Private Relay in Russia only recently isn't entirely clear, but the company has bowed to demands from the Russian authorities in the past, so there's good reason to presume this is down to another regulatory issue.

iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15 will be released on Monday, September 20.

Tag: iCloud
Related Forums: iOS 15, Apple Music, Apple Pay/Card, iCloud, Fitness+

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Top Rated Comments

visualseed Avatar
visualseed
63 months ago
“Bowed to demands”

It’s interesting that many of the same people advocating legislation around the world to change how Apple conducts business, seem to also be the ones to suggest that Apple should ignore or resist laws in countries that they don’t like.

I’m all for being opposed to authoritative regimes and repressive laws, but foreign policy should not be left to corporations to enforce. This should remain the realm of governments and citizens should pressure them into legislating trade with countries that abuse human rights.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tonywalker23 Avatar
tonywalker23
63 months ago
Don’t tell me that Apple wouldn’t bend the knee to a country’s demand for CSAM tech to expand to whatever “offensive” material they want to detect.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
longofest Avatar
longofest
63 months ago
So... basically the places where you'd want to use this feature are the places you can't.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mercury7 Avatar
Mercury7
63 months ago
Kinda spotlights the concerns we had during the csam debate, ultimately Apple will do what governments tell them to do
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
DjMilitary
63 months ago
It was obvious that such regime will force Apple to block another tool for people who want to have qualitative information and news without Kremlin’s censorship and bans and privacy deprivations.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
beerseagulls
63 months ago
"......designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it"

wait a minute... does this mean someone has always been able to read the traffic between my iPhone and iCloud in the last several years? I've been paying extra for iCloud for years and never realized that.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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