JA EN
shiichan

1.1.1.1's promise not to track you, checked by outsiders once more!

Cloudflare Blog ★★ View Markdown
#cloudflare#security#infrastructure

Hey everyone, it's me, Shii-chan! Today I've got a story about DNS, the thing quietly helping you every day, and it's happy news about privacy.

Cloudflare Blog blog.cloudflare.com

What was announced?

Cloudflare's Blog published the results of having an independent third party (a Big 4 accounting firm) re-check the privacy commitments of 1.1.1.1, the public DNS resolver anyone can use. Since 1.1.1.1 launched on April 1, 2018, this reveal lands right on its 8th anniversary.

1.1.1.1 started out aiming to be "the fastest and most private DNS." This announcement is about confirming, with outside eyes, that the "most private" part still holds up.

The story so far

This isn't the first time, actually. Back in 2020 it already went through an independent examination once.

But over the six years since, Cloudflare grew the machinery behind the resolver and rebuilt the whole platform that powers it. When the foundation changes, you want to double-check it properly, so they asked for a fresh examination.

What changes

The happy part is that the important privacy promises were confirmed "unchanged" by a third party. Concretely, these are being kept:

  • We won't sell, share, or use your personal data for ad targeting
  • Only necessary information is kept (no data that could identify you)
  • Source IP addresses are anonymized and deleted within 25 hours

It's reassuring that they don't just say "we care about privacy" but have outside experts verify it.

Dive Deep

Let's peek a bit deeper.

For network troubleshooting and attack mitigation, they may randomly sample a tiny slice of traffic (at most 0.05%). This does include users' IP addresses, but it's used only for network investigation and mitigating attacks.

The examination covered calendar year 2024, and multiple Cloudflare teams spent months gathering evidence. Unlike in 2020, this round narrowed its scope specifically to the privacy commitments.

Cloudflare says no other major public DNS resolver provider has gone through an independent privacy examination like this. A little proud, sure, but it really is a rare move.

If you want to dig in, check out Cloudflare's Privacy Policy, the certifications and compliance resources page, and the developer docs for 1.1.1.1. You can also see DNS query stats over on Cloudflare Radar.

Wrap-up

  • Cloudflare had an independent Big 4 firm re-examine 1.1.1.1's privacy practices (on the resolver's 8th anniversary)
  • The promises -- "won't sell, share, or use for ads," "keeps no identifying data," "deletes source IPs within 25 hours" -- were confirmed to be intact
  • Sampling for network work is at most 0.05%, used only for investigation and attack mitigation
  • The examination covered calendar year 2024 and narrowed its scope to the privacy commitments
  • This one lands for anyone who says "I want a privacy-first DNS" or who values third-party assurance when choosing a service

Related posts