When Apple announced iCloud+ at the WWDC 2021 developer conference, a key feature that caught the attention of many Internet users was "iCloud Private Relay". But what exactly is iCloud Private Relay? Is that Apple's new way to call a VPN in iOS 15? That's what we're going to discuss in this article about Apple's iCloud Private Relay and learn whether it's better than a VPN or not.
Apple's Private Relay: Better than a VPN?
iCloud Private Relay is Apple's latest privacy-friendly addition to improve users' privacy when browsing the web on Safari. It's part of the new iCloud+ subscription available to paid iCloud customers. Behind the scenes, Private Relay uses a double-hop architecture while browsing the Internet. All web traffic leaving your device is encrypted and sent through two Internet relays.
While the first relay assigns an anonymous IP address, the second relay decrypts the URLs and takes users to the destination. In this way, no single device can identify the user and the websites they visit. For the second relay, Apple has partnered with third-party vendors.
From a technical point of view, you should know that Private Relay involves an Ingress Proxy and an Egress Proxy. Ingress Proxy accepts connections from the Internet and ensures that other servers do not access your IP address and encrypts your Internet traffic. On the other hand, Egress Proxy sends back to the internet while preventing Ingress Proxy from seeing the websites you visit.
