>>
>>> Now, in addition to some carriers in Europe, it appears that
>>> T-Mobile/Sprint in the United States is also blocking iCloud Private
>>> Relay access when connected to cellular data.
>
>> Not being an Apple user, I gotta ask, does iCloud Private Relay do
>> anything that a VPN doesn't? My VPN vendor has an apps for Android and
>> iOS, as well as most desktop OS and the popular web browsers. This
>> must be pretty standard, I checked a few of the reputable ones (Nord,
>> PIA, Express, Mullvad) and they all did. Only issue is, they're not
>> free and included on the phone.
>
> I believe many VPNs don't necessarily force DNS requests all over the
> tunnel, and still uses the local DNS resolvers as defined by the
> local setup (at least a few VPN services I have used have acted this
> way, I can't say definitively what every service does).
I'm sorry, but we're missing the point by debating the technical details. This isn't a problem caused by technical methods or procedures.
This blocking is due to a squable between two major players in the mobile Internet sector of the industry: Apple wants it's users to think that their click lists aren't going to be inspected by cellular carriers. One of those carriers is fighting back by putting up a blockade and demanding that Apple share the (immense) wealth that comes from selling the click lists of iPhone users.
Apple has spent a long time constructing a Potemkin Village, made from press releases and posturing, where they try to demand that their users pay attention to the smoke and mirrors, and ignore that man behind the curtain: the company has been staging Kabuki theatre episodes that feature sincerly pretty spokesmen claiming that Apple is standing on principle, and denying local law enforcement this or that detail from this or that suspect in this or that local crime, but none of it matters. We could debate - endlessly - the merits or demerits of any given company's "security" features, but it's shadow boxing: the NSA vacuums up anything it wants to see, and delivers those printouts to any government employee or officeholder that asks for them.
The question we need to talk about is *WHY* U.S. citizens don't have anything but a small fraction of the privacy protectdions European cellular users enjoy. *THAT* is worth talking about.
Bill