Member-only story
Technology
Is Apple’s Private Relay Useless?
Not for most of us
I have read a dozen or more articles about Apple’s Private Relay feature that came with IOS 15. Some of the posts are quite direct and factual, others find fault and imply that Private Relay is weak and insufficient. Some of the latter were plainly written by VPN vendors.
VPN vendors have good reasons for downplaying the value of Private Relay. VPN software is a profitable business. Even the least expensive offerings charge a few dollars a month, while Apple’s Private Relay is included with any paid* iCloud plan. As those plans start at 99 cents per month and include cloud storage for files and IOS backup, many of us have already purchased that, making Private Relay a free add-on.
* In this Youtube video, Craig Federeghi explains that even without a paid plan, Private Relay still kicks in for “known trackers”.
Not a single article I read mentioned that, not even those without any direct financial interest in VPN sales. However, those sites, while not vendors of VPN software, do have advertising hawking such wares. Is that why almost all strongly or subtlety suggested that a “true” VPN is still necessary?
Well, no, that’s not the only reason. First of all, Private Relay will only protect Safari traffic. Chrome…
