iOS 14.5 helps users hide IP from Google scrutiny

Apple’s upcoming iOS 14.5 update will have a new feature that prevents users from tracking their IP addresses by Google. Specifically, Apple will redirect all fraudulent website checks through its own proxy server. This is a solution to help protect Apple users from leaking IP address for Google.

Before that, Apple integrated into the Safari browser on iOS features “Phishing Site Warning”. This feature will warn users about dangerous websites that have been reported as phishing, malicious or dangerous.

To do this, Apple relies on Google’s Safe Browsing website checker (or Tencent for Chinese users). These tools will check the website the user visited and compare it with the reported phishing site data. If coincidence, Safari will block users from visiting that website and display a warning.

This method does not reveal the URL that the user wants to visit with Google or Tencent. However, it will leak the device’s IP address.

So, on iOS 14.5 Apple will reroute the verification process through a proxy owned by Apple. As a result, all user requests are derived from the same Apple IP.

This change is one of the measures to protect user privacy that Apple has implemented recently. Currently, Apple has a program that requires developers to publicize the data they track of users.

Currently, iOS 14.5 is in beta with beta 2, the official version is expected to be released later this spring.