zlacker

>>topshe+(OP)
Can somebody explain what are the practical implications of this?

>>ailef+73
You'll need an "approved" browser and potentially "approved" hardware to access the web. Since Cloudflare is on this too, most of the web will be locked for anyone who doesn't use mainstream hardware.

>>csomar+44
Cloudflare want to be the internets backbone. And they've honestly succeeded.

Now it's almost impossible to access websites in an automated way -- the CTO posted you can just email him (>>34639212 ) and he'll sort it. Because that scales.

edit: Mispoke about the CTO, said he would approve you, I was wrong. Apologies.

Their DNS is "privacy focused", but they provide "aggregated results" of domains. How is that privacy focused?

Cloudflare came from the approach of being a developers friend ("Look! SSL is now free!") but was given the internet on a silver platter.

>>thejos+j5
Also remember, Cloudflare is de-facto the moderator of the internet.

Whatever you may think of Kiwifarms, we all saw how that narrative unfolded from a technical perspective.

>>tenpie+n7
Yes. Cloudflare was irresponsible in fighting to keep 8chan, Daily Stormer, and Kiwifarms up as long as they did. Every other ISP with a competent abuse desk dropped them. If you don't think that's bad, then let me remind you that back in 2012, Malwarebytes actually had a policy of blocking all Cloudflare services specifically because they were hosting malware and refused to remove it[0]. The excuse Cloudflare used for not removing malware from their network was the same language used to justify keeping the aforementioned sites operational. If Cloudflare was paid to run the Great Firewall of China they'd bend over backwards to try and claim it was to protect Xi Jinping's freedom of speech.

Remember that moderators can be abusive not just in terms of removing content that shouldn't be removed, but also by forcing you to accept things that harm you. Moderation is a trust relationship because I'm delegating my own personal decision to accept or block traffic/content/etc to someone else. Cloudflare is not trustworthy.

Cloudflare also used to be a big pain in the ass for Tor/VPN users because competent DDoS protection requires some kind of traceable identity. Their solution was Privacy Pass - an extension that let you pre-solve their CAPTCHAs. However, this wasn't good enough, so their next solution... was to literally partner with Apple to implement Web Environment Integrity, years before Google even proposed it. Nobody noticed this - not even me - because it was sold as a way to make CAPTCHAs less annoying. It was literally the trojan horse Google could only dream of building.

[0] https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/108447-my-site-using-c...