Apple Private Relay

2021

Service outage in Russia

September 17, 2021 it became known about the closure in Russia of the function "Private Relay," which worked on the operating systems iOS 15 and macOS Monterey.

According to RIA Novosti, users of Apple devices running on beta versions of iOS 15 and macOS 12 Monterey with a connected iCloud+ noticed that the Private Node has ceased to work adequately - after 10 minutes from the moment of inclusion, a message appears that the service is not supported in this country.

Earlier, Apple warned that the "Private Node" that it would not work in a number of countries due to legislative restrictions. For users from Russia, the service worked in the summer and September 2021, including allowing you to bypass site locks. By mid-September 2021, the function does not work in Belarus, Egypt, Kazakhstan, China, Colombia, as well as in Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, the Philippines and South Africa.

Apple turned off the Private Node feature in Russia

On September 16, 2021, representatives of Apple and Google attended a meeting of the Federation Council commission for the protection of sovereignty. Parliamentarians accused corporations of interfering in elections to the State Duma, their employees were threatened with fines and criminal cases. Companies were required to remove prohibited content and remove the Navalny application from online stores. Nothing was reported about the requirement to disable Private Site.

Following the meeting, commission member Vladimir Dzhabarov said that the placement of the Navalny application on Apple and Google sites directly violates Russian law, and warned that such actions will have "legal consequences, up to criminal ones."

It is possible to restore the operability of the "Private Node" after the end of the elections in Russia, but it is possible that the function will no longer be available to Russian users. Apple itself so far avoids making official statements, simply stating through the interface the fact of lack of support in Russia.^[1]

Service announcement, prices in Russia

On June 7, 2021, Apple introduced the Private Relay VPN service, which at the time of its announcement can be used in Russia, unlike a number of other countries. In particular, the new Apple product will not be available in Belarus, Kazakhstan, China and Turkmenistan.

Built into the iCloud cloud package, Private Relay is designed to hide the user's IP address, visit sites blocked by the authorities, and make tracking the digital trail difficult. Unlike conventional VPN solutions, the service from Apple redirects the user to the site not through one, but two independent servers. The first of these assigns the user an anonymous IP address corresponding to the region of the user's location without revealing his exact location.

Apple has launched a double redirection VPN service. He works in Russia

The second server decrypts the required Internet address  and redirects the user  to the site. These servers belong to two third-party companies, so no one, including Apple, will be able to identify the user and identify the sites he^[2]

When Private Relay is turned on, no one can track your browser view history - neither your Internet provider nor any other link when sending a request between your device and the server from which you request information, writes TechCrunch.

The Russian Apple website presents prices for the use of Private Relay. The feature is available as part of a iCloud+ subscription  that also includes several other cloud technologies. Basic traffic costs 59 rubles per month (includes 30 GB of cloud storage). Options are also available for 149 and 599 rubles per month - their users get 200 GB and 2 TB of free space for Data Storage in the cloud. Prices are current as of June 8, 2021.

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