undefined | Better HN

0 pointsgjsman-10004y ago0 comments

It won’t harm VPN providers, I don’t think, for a few reasons.

- VPNs are actually less private than iCloud+ double hop design, but could be much faster due to only having a single hop.

- Unlike a VPN, you can’t choose the location of the server you exit at, and the exit server cannot be in a different nation. If you are in the US, iCloud+‘s relays are in the US. No circumventing georestrictions here.

- Apple does not market their service as a VPN and never said it is one. For most customers, they don’t know this is a VPN substitute because it doesn’t call itself one. So if you have “VPN” in your mind, this isn’t something you think of as an option.

0 comments

CubsFan10604y ago

Additionally, this only works for port 80 traffic from apps. Other traffic is not run through this, so a VPN would still be useful in those scenarios.

mariojv4y ago

To clarify: port 80 and 443 (TLS connections), right? Or is TLS traffic only routed through the private relay in Safari, not other apps?

gjsman-1000OP4y ago

All traffic in Safari goes through relay. However, in 3rd party apps, all traffic over 80 goes through relay and traffic over 443 is exempt. There is going to be an API though for if you want your 3rd party app’s 443 to go over the relay if you desire.

1 more reply

gcbirzan4y ago

Wait, so no HTTPS?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse