ALONG WITH THE RELEASE OF iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, Apple has also made iCloud+ available to anybody who pays for iCloud storage. It’s a set of benefits that focuses mostly on security and privacy.
If you haven’t already paid for more iCloud storage beyond the 5 GB that every Apple customer receives for free, costs start at 99 cents a month for 50 GB of space. You may also pay $2.99 per month to increase it to 200 GB, or $9.99 per month to receive 2 TB of cloud storage.
Check out the official Apple support document to learn more about these services and how to upgrade to iCloud+.
iCloud Private Relay
Only Apple devices, such as iPads, iPhones, and Macs, may use iCloud Private Relay. It is still considered a beta product. But if you pay for iCloud storage monthly, you may enable it.
The goal of iCloud Private Relay appears to be to make it significantly more difficult for anybody else to check on what you’re doing online. Whether it’s Apple, the firm that distributes your wifi, the police, online ads, or the man sitting next to you at the coffee shop. It is a critical additional layer of security that should be enabled.
When iCloud Private Relay is enabled, all traffic leaving your device is routed through two distinct internet relays. No one has a comprehensive picture since one is managed by Apple and the other by a third-party partner. It isn’t as comprehensive or versatile as a virtual private network (VPN) program. But it will suffice for the majority of users.
One of these relays protects your IP address. It is the internet’s equivalent of your zip code. They make it far more difficult for websites and advertisements to discover where and who you are. The second relay encrypts your browsing data. They make it far more difficult for anybody eavesdropping on your computer or phone to know which websites you’re viewing.
To enable the option on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, press on your name at the top, and then select iCloud and Private Relay (Beta). To access the option on macOS, go to System Preferences, then Apple ID, then iCloud. Because the option only applies to your current device, you may set up each of your Apple devices independently.
The function has one parameter that regulates how exact your shared position is. It’s still useful for websites to know your approximate location—for time zones, weather forecasts, local news, and so on—and you can control how precise information is.
Hide My Email
Hide My Email is the second important security feature included with iCloud+. This is essentially an extension of a feature accessible through Sign In With Apple, which allows you to use your Apple ID to connect to websites and applications (just like you would with your Google or Facebook account) without having to establish a new account.
Wherever Join In With Apple is available, you may use a secondary email address instead of your primary one to sign up for an app, website, or service. The idea is that if you forsake the account you’re creating, or if it’s leaked on the internet or you’re inundated with spam messages, you can simply delete this randomly generated address.
Hide My Email works similarly, except it may be used anywhere, not only where the Apple Sign In option appears. You can create quite so many random & unique email addresses as you need, whether you’re creating new accounts or texting someone you don’t know all while keeping your primary email address secret and concealed (thus the name).
Hide My email may be accessed in several ways. On the iCloud online interface, go to Account Settings, then Manage under hiding My Email. Click the + (plus) button to add a new address, or click a current address to manage or remove it. Emails received at one of your bogus email addresses can be forwarded to any of the real ones associated with Apple ID.
You may utilize iCloud Mail Aliases to create a more permanent, controllable alternate email address that you can pick yourself. Select Mail from the iCloud web interface then selects the Gear symbol and Accounts. You may add up to three aliases to your account and unlike Hide My Email addresses. You can send and receive messages from these inboxes.