Carriers Are Pissed About Apple's Best New Privacy Feature

Private Relay is a new feature in the new iCloud+ service that will make it impossible for Apple to see your internet traffic. It protects you from websites that might use your records to serve targeted ads.

Private Relay uses an Apple-managed proxy server that decouples the DNS request from your address then moves it on to an undisclosed "trusted partner" that uses a fake address. Private Relay is a useful privacy tool, but only if you have a paid account and are not hiding your region.

The feature is being bricked by European carriers according to a report. An open letter signed by carrier giants claims that Apple's new privacy feature would affect their ability to manage networks and violate EU digital sovereignty.

The way private relay is implemented will have consequences for European digital sovereignty. Private relay will impair others to innovate and compete in downstream digital markets and may negatively impact operators ability to efficiently manage telecommunication networks, according to the letter.

Operators are expecting the European Commission to label Apple a "digital gatekeeper," a title the report claims could "stop services such as private relay."

T-Mobile/Sprint in the United States is said to be blocking Private Relay when your phone is connected to its mobile network, but that might be a simplification of what is actually happening.

Jon Guidry, a T-Mobile customer, tried to enable Private Relay, but was told the feature was turned off for his cellular plan and that the network could monitor him.

T-Mobile might be slowly rolling out Private Relay, which would explain why some customers can still use it. The T-Mo Report published documents showing that T-Mobile customers with certain blocking features can't access Private Relay.

T-Mobile confirmed to Gizmodo that Private Relay can't be accessed by customers with certain content filters.

The plans and features that customers chose do not have access to the Private Relay to allow them to work as they were designed. A T-Mobile representative wrote in an email that all other customers have no restrictions.

Private Relay is in public testing. The feature is turned off by default.

T-Mobile has confirmed that the feature isn't available for customers who are signed up to certain content filters.