Apple Seemingly Adds Russia to List of Countries Where iCloud Private Relay Won't Be Available

Alongside iOS 15, Apple introduced an iCloud+ service that adds new features to its paid ‌‌iCloud‌‌ plans. One of these features is ‌‌iCloud‌‌ Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it.

icloud
According to Apple, "regulatory reasons" prevent the company from launching Private Relay in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines.

Apple mentioned these country limitations in June, but it seems that Private Relay will not be available in Russia either, after Apple apparently disabled the feature there over the last day or so.

Based on reports from Twitter users and as reported by iPhones.ru, the feature was previously available to use in Russia via beta versions of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, but now when they try to enable it, those same users are met with the message "Private Relay is not supported in this region."

Private Relay works by sending web traffic to a server that is maintained by Apple to strip the IP address. Once IP info has been removed, Apple sends the traffic to a second server maintained by a third-party company that assigns a temporary IP address and then sends the traffic to its destination, a process that prevents your IP address, location, and browsing activity from being used to create a profile about you.

Involving an outside party in the relay system is an intentional move that Apple says was designed to prevent anyone, including Apple, from knowing a user's identity and the website the user is visiting.


Why Apple has apparently disabled Private Relay in Russia only recently isn't entirely clear, but the company has bowed to demands from the Russian authorities in the past, so there's good reason to presume this is down to another regulatory issue.

iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15 will be released on Monday, September 20.

Tag: iCloud

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
maxresdefault

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options...

Top Rated Comments

visualseed Avatar
50 months ago
“Bowed to demands”

It’s interesting that many of the same people advocating legislation around the world to change how Apple conducts business, seem to also be the ones to suggest that Apple should ignore or resist laws in countries that they don’t like.

I’m all for being opposed to authoritative regimes and repressive laws, but foreign policy should not be left to corporations to enforce. This should remain the realm of governments and citizens should pressure them into legislating trade with countries that abuse human rights.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
longofest Avatar
50 months ago
So... basically the places where you'd want to use this feature are the places you can't.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tonywalker23 Avatar
50 months ago
Don’t tell me that Apple wouldn’t bend the knee to a country’s demand for CSAM tech to expand to whatever “offensive” material they want to detect.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mercury7 Avatar
50 months ago
Kinda spotlights the concerns we had during the csam debate, ultimately Apple will do what governments tell them to do
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DjMilitary Avatar
50 months ago
It was obvious that such regime will force Apple to block another tool for people who want to have qualitative information and news without Kremlin’s censorship and bans and privacy deprivations.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
beerseagulls Avatar
50 months ago
"......designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it"

wait a minute... does this mean someone has always been able to read the traffic between my iPhone and iCloud in the last several years? I've been paying extra for iCloud for years and never realized that.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)