Private Relay is “anti-competitive”
UK telcos raise concerns over privacy protections in iCloud+
Apple has come under fire from UK phone companies, thanks to the popularity of Private Relay – an iCloud+ feature that helps protect a user’s privacy.
Mobile UK, which represents EE, Three, Virgin Media, O2 and Vodafone, was responding to a Competitions & Markets Authority (CMA) interim report on mobile ecosystems, and singled out Private Relay as being detrimental to Apple users, stating: “There are reports that Apple users have suffered a worse browsing experience when using Private Relay. As a result, Apple may benefit from migration of certain traffic away from the Safari browser to apps downloaded from the App Store, where Apple can earn a commission.”
Mobile UK also accused Apple of anti-competitive behaviour and said: “Private Relay has a range of impacts on consumers through the impact on network providers of not seeing the traffic data on the Safari browser…”
“These include potential online harms, compromised national security, poor network performance and customer experience, and loss of future innovation.”