iCloud Private Relay: Google temporarily blocks access from Apple devices

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Google is trying to prevent the misuse of its services, be it its search engine, the Maps service or more specialized offerings such as Google Scholar. Automated systems are supposed to intercept robot requests that hit the machines via virtual private networks (VPN), for example. The problem is that this also affects legitimate users – and, more and more frequently recently, ordinary users of Apple hardware in certain configurations. These users often have to solve annoying captchas several times, but are sometimes also blocked afterwards and are not allowed to use the services.

iCloud Private Relay = evil

In the case of Apple users, the reason is probably the iCloud Private Relay security service. This optional function for paying iCloud+ customers ensures that websites do not find out a user's actual IP address of origin, making it less easy to track them. Apple forwards requests securely via two relay stations. However, Google's systems now seem to believe that iCloud private relay users are malicious traffic. They then end up in the aforementioned captcha and blocking loop.

This seems to mainly impact users who use Apple's Safari browser on the Mac, which uses iCloud Private Relay by default when activated. iPhone users are less likely to fall into the trap. There is also no system behind the blockages: Sometimes it seems that they occur as soon as you make requests a little too quickly, sometimes when they seem to be made too quickly one after the other. Then again, the block does not occur at all for hours.

Google Scholar blocks completely

Google's defense services therefore seem to handle iCloud Private Relay differently, possibly depending on which origin IP Apple assigns to the user. In our tests, the blocking occurred particularly often in Google Maps, but the main search is also impacted – even if you are logged in to Google. Sometimes it helps to wait a little and switch to a browser without iCloud Private Relay (such as Firefox or Chrome). Solving the captcha is – as mentioned – not always helpful either: even if this is done correctly, some users remain blocked. Users of the Google Scholar service, on the other hand, report that in May it blocked iCloud Private Relay users at times, even those who had an account.

It is by no means the case that Google cannot recognize iCloud Private Relay as such. Apple regularly publishes the address ranges used so that the Internet giant's network management could actually easily adapt to letting them through.

Problems time and again

In the past, iCloud Private Relay has repeatedly experienced short-term problems. For example, Apple had several lengthy outages and various service providers such as Kleineinzeigen.de classified accounts created with it as possibly fraudulent.

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