Apple has announced that the iCloud Private Relay service has been out of service for millions of users around the world.
The outage prevented users from accessing web services such as Safari and applications that are available over an Internet connection.
In a statement today, the company called on those affected by the ongoing service outage to temporarily turn it off by going to Settings, then Profile, and going to iCloud Private Relay, noting that many countries were affected by this outage, including the United States, Europe, India, and Japan.
It is noteworthy that this service was launched in 2021 exclusively for iCloud Plus subscribers, and it works to protect users’ privacy by encrypting Internet traffic and hiding the user’s identity from online trackers.
This outage means that millions of users around the world have lost the protection provided by the iCloud Private Relay service, making them more vulnerable to tracking by parties seeking to collect data about their online activities.