Apple said it would not be releasing its Private Relay feature in several countries, including South Africa, but experts suspect that the decision was made by the company internally rather than by a local regulator.
Private Relay is a privacy feature from Apple included with premium iCloud subscriptions. It was unveiled during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference on 7 June 2021 and launched towards the end of the year. While using Apple’s Safari browser, Private Relay will encrypt all your outgoing traffic so no one other than you and the website you are visiting can read it.
Apple explained that all requests would be sent through two independent Internet relays while using Private Relay. The first assigns you an anonymous IP address that maps to your region but not your actual location.
The second relay decrypts the web address you want to visit and forwards you to their destination. Neither your Internet service provider nor Apple itself will be able to link you to your browsing history.
Shortly after Apple announced the feature, the company told MyBroadband that regulatory reasons prevented it from launching in the country. However, Apple could not immediately indicate which regulations in South Africa were blocking the launch.
“Given that Apple themselves don’t seem to be able to point to the regulations, we can only guess… we suspect this is more Apple’s internal decision than being told by any local regulator that they cannot,” Dominic Cull, owner of Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions, said.
“Looking at where the service is and is not allowed, there is no clear distinction in SA law that jumps out as justifying Apple’s decision.
Cull also explained that Ellipsis’ view was that the service doesn’t require local licensing, meaning it would not be of concern to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. Cull outlined several possible explanations for why Apple hasn’t launched its Private Relay feature in the country.
Source: mybroadband
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