How to Enable iCloud Private Relay on Mac

iCloud Private Relay is a fantastic privacy feature that is part of the iCloud+ subscription that helps to protect your internet activity and browsing by obfuscating your IP address (via using a temporary IP address) and encrypting your DNS lookups, so that third parties can’t see what websites you’re visiting. The end result is that you gain some additional privacy on the internet, as it makes it more difficult for trackers and data miners to build a profile on you. If you’re an iCloud subscriber and Safari user, you should certainly consider using iCloud Private Relay, and it’s quite easy to enable on the Mac (for what it’s worth, enabling and using iCloud Private Relay on iPhone and iPad is also easy, and recommended).

We’re going to walkthrough how you can enable iCloud Private Relay on the Mac to better protect your online privacy.

How to Enable iCloud Private Relay on Mac

You must have a semi-modern version of MacOS (Monterrey or later) and iCloud+ subscription (a paid iCloud user), to have access to this feature.

1. From the Apple  menu, go to “System Settings”
2. Click on your Apple ID account name (top left corner)
3. Select “iCloud”
4. Locate “Private Relay” and click on that



5. Toggle the switch for Private Relay to the ON position



6. Optionally, you can adjust the IP address location, but for most users they’ll want to maintain the general location so that things like web-based mapping services work as intended

Now that iCloud Private Relay is enabled, you’re ready to use it. This requires using Safari on the Mac, which is a great web browser (and the default) anyway. If you use another browser like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc, the private relay feature will not work.

With iCloud Private Relay enabled on the Mac, your IP address is now hidden from websites and trackers, and so is your precise location, which makes it more difficult for data miners and data brokers to profile you. iCloud Private Relay is all automatic, so there’s no additional setup or apps reqiured to use.

Again, you must be a paid iCloud subscriber to have access to this feature. Given that the free iCloud tier has only 5GB of storage (still, two thousand years after debuting), it’s a good idea to pay for iCloud anyway if you ever want to backup any of your devices.

Note: Private Relay disables custom DNS settings to ensure privacy, avoid conflicts, and maintain the integrity of its encryption and relay system. If you require custom DNS for content filtering, parental controls, or performance, you’ll need to disable Private Relay, since using iCloud Private Relay will disable any custom DNS.

How to Disable iCloud Private Relay on Mac?

If you need to disable iCloud Private Relay on the Mac, perhaps to have better compatibility with a particular website (some finance related websites use IP detection as a security feature, and iCloud Private Relay can trigger excessive authentication), you can always turn the feature off.

1. From the Apple  menu, go to “System Settings”
2. Click on your Apple ID account name, then go to “iCloud”
3. Click “Private Relay”
4. Toggle the setting to the OFF position

iCloud Private Relay will now be turned off in Safari on the Mac.

Another way to temporarily not use iCloud Private Relay, rather than disabling it completley, is to simply use another web browser like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Epic, Arc, or whatever your alternate browser of choice is.

What is iCloud Private Relay anyway?

iCloud Private Relay is a web privacy feature from Apple, that, when enabled, will encrypt your internet traffic through Safari, while routing it through two separate internet relays, one from Apple, and another from a third party. This basically means neither Apple or the third party, or the website you’re visiting, is able to track you using the typical methods.

iCloud Private Relay is basically a privacy proxy, but it’s not a VPN. A VPN will encrypt all of your internet traffic, while a web proxy only encrypts web traffic. It’s possible that a future version of iCloud may support or even include VPN features, but at the moment that’s not the case.

And by the way, if you’re enabling this feature on the Mac, you should also enable iCloud Private Relay on your iPhone and iPad too.

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If you’re a privacy-conscious Safari user on the Mac, enabling iCloud Private Relay is a good idea. It’s seamless integration and privacy features are worthwhile, and with the exception of some financial websites with extraordinarily strong security measures, tends to work flawlessly.

Do you use iCloud Private Relay? What do you think of the feature? Noticed any issues or difficulties? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.