Is this the same as a VPN?

Get rid of the AT&T VPN. It serves no legitimate purpose.

A VPN is intended to connect you to resources on a secure private network.

For example, I use a VPN on my Macs to connect securely to the private corporate network at my office. It creates a secure tunnel between my Mac and the office network, which is otherwise inaccessible from the outside.

Using a VPN to access anything on the public Internet is ridiculous. You create a secure tunnel between your device and the VPN provider, then the traffic goes out not secured from the VPN host to the target system you're accessing, all the while giving the VPN provider access to ALL of your data traffic.

If you're not accessing a private corporate network with it, you should not be using a VPN.

Using a VPN to access the Internet does more to compromise your Privacy and security than it does to protect it.

When you use a VPN to access the Internet, all you're doing is routing ALL of your data traffic through a single entity that can't be trusted with it. If they tell you they don't keep logs of the data so you can evade law enforcement or government monitoring, they are lying. Flat out. That or they are going to find themselves out of business very quickly.

iCloud private relay routes all of your requests through multiple proxies, so that your service provider can't identify what web sites you're visiting and the site you're visiting can not uniquely identify you.

Other apps such as banking apps, already use secure connections, so a VPN is pointless.

"Don't use VPN services"

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

"How VPN services resell your data"

https://thebestvpn.com/how-free-vpns-sell-your-data/

Some research into one of the VPN providers:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17258203

K1WDR wrote:

I did read your linked information.

Last question:

iCloud Private Relay = good to use?

Yes. It's not the same as a VPN. It does provide the protection while web browsing that VPN services claim to provide.

It's similar, but not exactly the same as a VPN. It will not allow you to change your location for example. But will hide your actual IP address and secure your access to websites.