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Apple's new iCloud Plus will upgrade your account with more privacy features

A new Apple service called iCloud Plus includes tools to help you hide your information on the web.

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Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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Alison DeNisco Rayome
icloud

iCloud Plus will add new privacy features to your Apple iCloud account. 

Apple

Your iCloud account will soon be getting an upgrade. At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, executives unveiled a new service called iCloud Plus, adding in more privacy features to your existing iCloud account. 

iCloud Plus will include a new service called Private Relay, a VPN-like feature that will hide your information as you surf the web. It will send internet traffic through two relay systems, obscuring your information even from Apple, the company said. 

A new feature called Hide My Email will create a hidden email address for you, to prevent companies from sending you spam (here's how Hide My Email works). Apple will also add a digital legacy function, allowing you to assign an administrator who can access your iCloud account in the event you die.

Watch this: How to Back Up Your iPhone

These iCloud Plus features will be built into iCloud for the same prices Apple currently charges, executives said. When it launches later this year, it should already be built in for most people. 

The privacy additions to iCloud come alongside others announced at WWDC, including an iOS app transparency report that shows you how apps are using the permissions they have to access data like your location, microphone and camera, and updates to Siri to process voice commands completely on-device, keeping the sound of user's voice off of Apple's systems. These changes follow the ability to stop apps from tracking you across the web, added in iOS 14.5 in April.