If you've been having problems with your Apple device's web browser for the past few hours, you're probably not alone. iCloud Private Relay has reported that Apple has been experiencing outages since 2:00 PM ET yesterday, according to its status page, As of this writing (4:32 AM EST), the outage continues.

iCloud Private Relay is a system bundled as part of Apple's iCloud+ and Apple One subscriptions. It sends Internet requests through two different (and separate) secure Internet relays - one controlled by Apple, the other by a third party, whether iPhone, Mac, or Vision Pro, All Apple devices generate these requests while browsing.

The general idea is that this second relay prevents Apple from knowing who the user is and what content they are viewing online. This means that these failures are a problem and could affect the web browsing experience until they are fixed. Apple's status page states that the service may be “slow or unavailable” but only specifies that “some users are affected.”

It is not clear how many users are affected or how widespread the problem is. However, if the browser on your Apple device is not working as it should and you have Private Relay enabled, this may explain it.

If you are not subscribed to iCloud Plus or Apple One, or if you already have Private Relay turned off, the browsing problems are most likely due to other causes; Wi-Fi or cellular signal issues are the most likely culprits.

You can turn off Private Relay until Apple resolves the issue. Go to Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Private Relay. You can then choose to turn off iCloud Private Relay temporarily or turn off iCloud Private Relay completely. This is a more permanent solution and requires you to manually turn Private Relay back on.