# Quad9 or Cloudflare

**URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/quad9-or-cloudflare/15744
**Category:** Questions
**Created:** 2023-12-20T21:45:17Z
**Posts:** 17
**Showing post:** 9 of 17

## Post 9 by @xe3 — 2023-12-21T02:58:42Z

> [@exaCORE](#):
>
> Thats true, but it doesnt feel like its because of an actual commitment to privacy, rather just by accident :person_shrugging:

If you are talking about Cloudflare, I (personally) feel this may be somewhat of a mis-impression. My impression is that they have made a conscious decision to try to build a mainstream business that is compatible with and supportive of online privacy & security, and have devoted real time and resources to privacy initiatives. Its just that a lot of the work they do related to privacy is more technical behind the scenes stuff that isn’t always apparent to the consumer/end user.

But Cloudflare has been an influential player, early adopter, (and in some cases a leader) of various privacy initiatives and standards. Things like:

- [Encrypted SNI](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/what-is-encrypted-sni/) (ESNI)
- [Encrypted Client Hello](https://blog.cloudflare.com/announcing-encrypted-client-hello/) (ECH)
- [DoH and DoT](https://thehackernews.com/2020/02/firefox-dns-over-https.html)
- [Oblivious DoH](https://blog.cloudflare.com/oblivious-dns/) (ODoH)
- [Oblivious HTTP](https://blog.cloudflare.com/stronger-than-a-promise-proving-oblivious-http-privacy-properties/) (OHTTP)
- [TLS 1.3](https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-tls-1-3/)
- [DNSSEC](https://www.cloudflare.com/dns/dnssec/universal-dnssec/)

Apart from specific technical things, I see Cloudflare making a positive contribution in a few other ways (A) Privacy and Security education, their blog posts often provide good conceptual overviews of somewhat complicated and esoteric technical topics(B) Pushing for or supporting privacy-preserving or privacy-enhancing web standards (C) Making it _easier_ (or the default) to use emerging security and privacy standards.

My impression is that Cloudflare _has_ demonstrated a meaningful commitment to some privacy initiatives that are making a real and positive impact. And because of their size and reach they are in a somewhat unique position to push privacy in ways that benefit everyone, not just those of us who are already privacy conscious. I don’t think they are perfect, and I don’t fully trust them, especially in some particular contexts, but I don’t think its fair to say they are private ‘by accident’. As far as big tech companies go, I consider them one of the better ones.

With that said, like you, I have a bit more trust-by-default in a non-profit than a large corporation, and I do not trust that any company that controls as much of the internet as cloudflare does will not be a big target for US and other govts intelligence services.

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