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   iCloud Private Relay Down: Here's How to Turn It Off to Avoid Connectivity
                                    Problems

   Adam Engst

   Reports have started to filter in about various connectivity issues,
   with [1]Safari unable to load pages for some, slow or no connectivity
   in some apps, error messages, and more. The problems turn out to be
   related to an iCloud Private Relay outage, as reported on Apple's
   [2]System Status page.

   iCloud Private Relay increases privacy for iCloud+ subscribers by
   routing traffic through two Internet relays, one run by Apple and
   another run by a third-party service (see '[3]Solving Connectivity
   Problems Caused by Interlocking Apple Privacy Settings,' 20 June 2022).
   While iCloud Private Relay is generally a good thing, it does add
   another point of failure to many communications. Apple acknowledges
   this in its [4]white paper describing the service:

     However, there are some cases where Private Relay may not be
     applicable, or the service may be unavailable, as detailed below. In
     these instances, Private Relay is designed to provide clear status
     information and control to the user, and provide appropriate
     controls to enterprises and network operators that might require the
     ability to audit all traffic on their network.

   The 'clear status information' explains the errors that some people
   have seen regarding iCloud Private Relay not being available. I haven't
   seen one of these messages, so I'm unsure how clear it really is.
   Nevertheless, iCloud Private Relay is easy to disable if you're
   experiencing problems.

   On the Mac, go to System Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Private Relay
   and turn off the switch. The interface is nearly identical on the
   iPhone and iPad atSettings > Your Name > iCloud > Private Relay. You
   can turn iCloud Private Relay off until tomorrow or indefinitely,
   though the latter requires that you remember to turn it back on later.

   It's important to realize that iCloud Private Relay does not route all
   traffic through Apple and the third-party relay. Apple says, 'Private
   Relay protects all web browsing in Safari and unencrypted activity in
   apps.' It's unclear what the second part of that sentence encompasses,
   but the first part means that if you use Arc, Brave, Firefox, or Google
   Chrome, your traffic will not be anonymized through the relays.

   Generally speaking, I encourage those who pay for additional iCloud
   storage via iCloud+ to enable iCloud Private Relay. Even if it protects
   only a subset of your traffic, that's better than nothing, and this
   outage notwithstanding, it shouldn't impact your day-to-day usage in
   any way. Simultaneously, I can't say I've ever seen any real-world
   benefit from using it, so I wouldn't subscribe to iCloud+ purely for
   iCloud Private Relay's protections.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://talk.tidbits.com/t/apples-private-relay-service-is-causing-internet-issues/28377?u=ace
   2. https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
   3. https://tidbits.com/2022/06/20/solving-connectivity-problems-caused-by-interlocking-apple-privacy-settings/
   4. https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/iCloud_Private_Relay_Overview_Dec2021.PDF

   Hidden links:
   5. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2024/07/iCloud-Private-Relay-down.png
   6. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2024/07/iCloud-Private-Relay-off-Mac.png

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