iCloud+’s New Privacy Features Are Good, but Limiting

iCloud+ will arrive this fall with new privacy features, like hiding your email and stopping ISPs from seeing what sites you visit, but experts say some users could find the features limiting.

If you own an Apple device, chances are you already have an iCloud subscription. If you don’t, then iCloud+ could be worth checking into. Alongside better support for HomeKit’s secure video cameras, the subscription also will include a system called Private Relay, which acts similarly to a virtual private network (VPN). This is one of the centerpieces of the subscription, but experts say it could end up being too limited to fully protect consumers.

“Private Relay is part of Apple’s continued effort to foster a privacy-oriented operating system, but there will still be some caveats,” Daniel Markuson, a privacy expert with NordVPN, told Lifewire in an email. “Apple says Private Relay hides a user’s traffic from ISPs, advertisers, and even Apple itself. While there are similarities, when you turn on a VPN on your computer, smartphone, tablet, smart TV, or even router, it protects your data by putting everything you do online through a tunnel.”

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