Apple always paints himself as a user privacy champion, goes up and outside to provide features that protect their customers from the eyes. It has become popular and unpopular because of its hard attitude to encrypt the iPhone, but the protection does not apply to data coming out of the phone and through the internet. That was made by iCloud Apple’s personal relay, but it seemed to have caused some confusion, leading people to blame Bug iOS 15.2 or T-Mobile.
The encrypted iPhone or MAC safely won’t really save you from an agent on the internet that can still determine your identity through other methods. In particular, network operators, websites, and even some DNS providers can see your IP address and the website you visit. Personal relays acting rather like default VPN that cover your presence and activities by encrypting certain data and sending it through proxy channels.
Like VPN, iCloud Private Relay requires that the network supports this new feature. The support may be limited by operators in various regions or with certain conditions or restrictions on cellular connections or Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, the condition is unclear, leading to a number of charges when personal relays suddenly stop working for some iPhone owners (through 9to5mac).
Only a few days ago, iPhone users on the T-Mobile network found personal relays suddenly stopped working. People, not surprisingly, quickly blame the operator, accused him of cheating strategies to block privacy features and may benefit from their customer data. T-Mobile, however, quickly to direct your finger towards Apple, claiming iOS updates 15.2 set the feature to “Off” by default. Carrier said it was not widely blocking personal relay to his cellular network.
Apple is also fast to refute the implications of software bugs and say there is no change in personal relay settings introduced in iOS 15.2 (through macrumor). The company also confirms that no carrier partners, including T-Mobile, has blocked the feature. T-Mobile since it was clarified that iOS 15.2 did not change the user’s settings without their knowledge.
It turns out that the part of confusion may be caused by Apple’s own messages that detail why personal relays may not work on cellular networks (through the threshold). The previous message version only said that if the personal relay did not work, the feature might not be supported by the customer’s cellular plan.
The latest version of the message will make it remove the feature may be turned off in cellular settings. For personal relays to work, “Limit IP Address Tracking” toggle must be activated. Personal relays may also be disabled on certain networks that apply network audits or network-based filtering. Apple provides more details about features in support documents.