Apple's Private Relay feature could reveal your IP address to websites and services
Apple's Private Relay, intended to mask users' IP addresses in Safari, was found to leak IP information under certain conditions. Researchers identified a WebKit flaw that exposes IP addresses when passkeys are used, affecting Safari and other iOS browsers. Apple is investigating the issue, but a fix may take time.
- ▪Security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk discovered that Private Relay can reveal a user's IP address when passkeys are used for authentication.
- ▪The leak stems from a WebKit vulnerability that affects all iOS browsers, not just Safari.
- ▪The issue also impacts privacy-focused browsers such as OnionBrowser and the researchers' Psylo browser.
- ▪Apple has acknowledged the report and is investigating, but past similar issues have taken up to a year to resolve.
8 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 16 hours. Coverage spans 2 points on the political spectrum — 1 lean left, 6 centre.
- ▪ Apple’s Private Relay Isn’t So Private After All, Can Leak Your IP Address — CNET
- ▪ Apple's iCloud Private Relay is Leaking Users' Real IP Addresses — MacRumors
- ▪ iCloud Private Relay might be leaking your real IP address, researchers say — 9to5Mac
- ▪ Mysk: Apple's Private Relay tool can leak users' IP addresses due to issues in Apple's WebKit browser engine, also affecting OnionBrowser, a Tor browser for iOS (Joseph Cox/404 Media) — Techmeme
- ▪ PSA: Apple’s Private Relay can leak your real IP address — TechCrunch
- ▪ Apple’s Private Relay isn’t always hiding your IP address, researchers say — Android Authority
- ▪ Apple's ‘Private Relay’ Is Exposing Users' Real IP Addresses — 404 Media
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| Original publisher | Engadget |
| Canonical URL | https://www.engadget.com/2231360/apple-private-relay-feature-could-reveal-your-ip-address/ |
| Publication time | Thu, 06 Aug 2026 06:06:34 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-06T06:10:41.868Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-06T06:10:41.868Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | vyF4wCtWdKdA · 8 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Cybersecurity Apple's Private Relay feature could reveal your IP address to websites and services It’s supposed to mask your IP address, but researchers found that it doesn’t always work due to a WebKit issue. By Mariella Moon Aug. 6, 2026 2:06 am EST Stockcam/Getty Images Apple's Private Relay feature is supposed to ensure that no website or even the company itself can see your IP address when you browse the web on Safari. But according to security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, it doesn't always work as intended due to issues with Apple's web browser engine, WebKit. One of the issues they found is related to passkeys, which are gaining ground as a new secure and password-free login method.
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