140 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
140 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
# 👋 [_Non-English_ versions](../README.md)
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---
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# CrimeFlarE
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*Why you should say "NO" to Cloudflare*
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---
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Are you already aware of the problems of [Cloudflare](https://www.cloudflare.com/)?
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You might want to check:
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- [Alternatives](#alternatives)
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- [Solutions](#solutions)
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## Who are we?
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`CrimeFlarE`(CFE) is a group of volunteer [Tor](https://www.torproject.org/), privacy and net neutrality
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enthusiasts working to counter CloudFlare’s oppressive attack on the Tor
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community and reduce the harms CloudFlare brings to all users (Tor users and
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clearnet users).
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## Who is Cloudflare?
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Cloudflare is the world's largest man-in-the-middle proxy. Technically it is called "[reverse proxy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_proxy)".
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This means that it sits between you and the server which sent you webpages and images.
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Cloudflare is a [content delivery network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network), which means that it has different
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servers in different locations, so that websites are supposed to be better
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reachable. This has some bad sides.
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## Why you shouldn't use it
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### Privacy problems
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#### Single point of failure
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Cloudflare goes down from time to time.
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All the content which uses Cloudflare goes down as well when that happens.
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Read more about the [single point of failure](../subfiles/single-point-of-failure-problem.md).
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#### It removes anonymity
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Cloudflare usually blocks Tor or makes it hard for Tor users to access the
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website or content. Tor is not only for criminals. It is important for many
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people and everyone has the right on privacy.
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Tor is important, read more about [why Tor matters](../subfiles/why-tor-matters.md).
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Cloudflare often uses Google reCATPCHAs to check if you are human. These
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CAPTCHAs which check if you are human, track you and many claim that they
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even try to find out which human you are.
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Read more about the [reCAPTCHA problem](../subfiles/recaptcha-problem.md).
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#### Project Honey Pot
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"[Project Honey Pot](https://www.projecthoneypot.org/)" is a project which collects a lot of personal data
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and much of that data is from innocent people who deserve privacy.
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Cloudflare was created by people who worked on that project. US DHS showed interest to this project.
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### Not convenient
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Cloudflare is not convenient for many visitors of your site.
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You will lose visitors when you choose Cloudflare.
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Many people who helped writing this file even blocked by Cloudflare.
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Did you know that you can lose visitors because your site [doesn't load in a few seconds](https://www.hostingmanual.net/3-seconds-how-website-speed-impacts-visitors-sales/)?
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Cloudflare often makes visitors wait for more than few seconds.
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Many visitors will just leave your site when they see this.
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Here is an [example video](../subfiles/cloudflare-video-01.md) of CloudFlare blocking user who is using privacy add-ons.
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### Other problems
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There are other problems as well, but we want to keep this file simple.
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Those problems are listed in [another file](../subfiles/more-cloudflare-problems.md).
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## Cloudflare Alternatives
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Do you own a website?
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We created a [file with Cloudflare alternatives](../subfiles/cloudflare-alternatives.md)
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to make your life easier if you agree with us.
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## Solutions
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### Blocking Cloudflare request or IPs
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- [Add-ons](../what-to-do.md#website-consumer)
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- [Cloudflare IPs to block](../cloudflare_inc/)
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- [Change default DNS provider of firefox](../subfiles/change-firefox-dns.md)
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### Share information about the problem
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Many supporters of CrimeFlarE have written some
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[articles](../subfiles/articles.md) about the problem.
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You can check them out and share them.
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You can ask website owners to stop using Cloudflare, please do so in a polite way.
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It might be good to mention some [alternatives](#alternatives).
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There are more files on this repository to educate yourself.
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We haven't included them all in the README to keep it fairly readable.
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## Not convinced yet?
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Many supporters of CrimeFlarE have written some [articles](../subfiles/articles.md) about the problem.
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You can check them out and share them.
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---
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Still not convinced? That's fine.
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Just know that many people won't be able to use your content or website.
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Cloudflare works against you.
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