Silly, silly European carriers - asking permission to block a thing. A piece from 9 to 5 Mac indicates that T-Mobile/Sprint in the US has gotten around Private Relay by simply going around Private Relay. Actually, it sort of sounds like “Big Fuchsia” has done that both here and there. “In the UK,” says 9 to 5 Mac, “carriers including T-Mobile, EE, and others have already started blocking Private Relay usage when connected to cellular data.” Now, the site says, they’re doing that here, too. According to the report:
This means that T-Mobile and Sprint users in the United States can no longer use the privacy-preserving iCloud Private Relay feature when connected to cellular data.
When attempted, 9 to 5 Mac says the Settings app throws up an error message, explaining:
Your cellular plan doesn’t support iCloud Private Relay. With Private Relay turned off, this network can monitor your internet activity, and your IP address is not hidden from known trackers or websites.
So… your cellular plan doesn’t support you using it without them seeing what you’re doing. Once again - it used to be if you weren’t paying for it, you weren’t the customer, you were the product. Oh, what fun to be both. If you’re a T-Mobile/Sprint user who’s neither seen the message nor had any trouble surfing under Private Relay, give it a minute. According to 9 to 5 Mac:
The change does not appear to be network-wide just yet, but rather it appears T-Mobile is in the process of rolling it out. This means that some users might still be able to use iCloud Private Relay when connected to their cellular network – at least for now. The situation could also could vary based on your location or plan.
Or it could be a misunderstanding. A few hours after the initial story, 9 to 5 Mac got an update from T-Mobile. That had a spokesperson for the “uncarrier” saying:
Customers who chose plans and features with content filtering (e.g. parent controls) do not have access to the iCloud Private Relay to allow these services to work as designed. All other customers have no restrictions.
The only problem is, some of them seem to. Users who’ve reached out to 9 to 5 Mac as well as some of the site’s own staff have run into the Private Relay problem even with no content filtering enabled. They’re waiting to hear again from T-Mobile. Apple, meanwhile, does not seem to have commented on the issue.