Do we really get a built-in VPN?
With the release of macOS Monterey, Apple brings an exciting addition to iCloud Plus — Private Relay and Hide My Email. The former anonymizes your IP and the latter anonymizes your email. How does it work and does it mean you no longer need a VPN? Let’s see.
Hiding IP in a browser
The point of Private Relay is encrypting the traffic that leaves your device when you use Safari so that websites can’t track your IP address or browsing history. Yes, that means the internet will stop creeping you out with ads that are a bit too...personalized.
To turn on Private Relay in Safari:
Open System Preferences > Apple ID
Choose iCloud in the left sidebar
Click Upgrade next to Private Relay
If you don’t have an iCloud Plus account, set it up
Choose approximate or broader IP location > OK.
Approximate location will give you more relevant search results for your area.
Note: In some countries, Private Relay won’t work due to regulatory restrictions. This includes Russia, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, South Africa, and a few more.
Can Private Relay replace VPN?
Absolutely not. Hiding IP is a useful trick but it won’t let you bypass geo-blocking, for example. So if you want to watch German Netflix from the US, you’ll still need a VPN app like ClearVPN. Also, Private Relay doesn’t encrypt all your device’s traffic — just Safari and a small part of DNS-related traffic. A real bummer for Chrome fans.
ClearVPN will help you hide or mask IP in any browser or app, as well as unlock any streaming content blocked in your area.
And if you don’t want a VPN, you just want fewer ads jumping at you from all corners in a browser, get AdLock. It’s a lightweight ad blocker for Mac that works in all browsers. A nice touch: AdLock shows how much data it saves by keeping those annoying trackers and ads away.
Hiding email address
Another privacy enhancement bundled in iCloud Plus this year is Hide My Email. Essentially, it lets you interact with online services and apps without using your real email address. So when you create an account with some app for the 1257th time, you can use a randomly generated email address. If they send you an email, it will be redirected to your real inbox.
While Hide My Email is a great privacy tool, it doesn’t solve the problem of a cluttered inbox — because you’ll still be getting all the emails. To declutter, we suggest Unibox. It’s an alternative to Mail that groups emails by sender in a messenger-like style.
Hope this use case will help you solve tasks faster, and enjoy solving them, too! Check out more use cases picked for you below.
