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I'm consistently amazed at how many people [on HN...] over-estimate the size/scale of Cloudflare. Comcast is a huge, multi-billion $ operation with global cont

I'm consistently amazed at how many people [on HN...] over-estimate the size/scale of Cloudflare. Comcast is a huge, multi-billion $ operation with global contracts and broadcasting capabilities, and > 184,000 employees globally (that's more than Google, and even MSFT). That's not to say that we shouldn't be wary of Cloudflare for many other reasons; but that they have more influence over the Internet than one of the world's largest consumer & corporate ISPs is definitely "a take".

mwcampbell 7y ago
How many websites have you visited that are hosted or proxied by Comcast? The fact that Cloudflare is now mediating the connection on both ends is what makes it frightening.
- cj 7y ago
  Comcast operates a CDN, launched in 2014. [0] [1] After some googling, it's very unclear how popular their CDN service is. Based on some of their marketing, seems like it might be focussed more on the video delivery side, which would also make sense given that it's Comcast. (If it indeed is an enterprise video delivery service, they may only have a handful of very large customers) If this is accurate, it seems like Comcast also controls the data end-to-end (being both an ISP and CDN). [0] https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/ https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/ [1] https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/sites/default/files/2017-10/CDN%20One%20Sheet.pdf https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/sites/default/fil...
mr__y 7y ago
According to [0] between 5 and 10% of all websites use Cloudflare. Even using the lower number, I'm pretty sure that neither 5% of websites are hosted by Comcast nor that they serve 5% of internet users. This gives Cloudflare already a much larger potential to monitor/censor than Comcast has. I am not saying that they actively do so, just pointing out that they do have the scale and market share to do so. What is more, in contrast to said Comcast, they also have the ability to access unencrypted traffic for those 5-10% percent. [0] https://www.wired.com/story/cloudflare-spectrum-iot-protecti.. https://www.wired.com/story/cloudflare-spectrum-iot-protecti....
tripzilch 7y ago
You realize people are worried about more power being concentrated among less people, right?

mwcampbell 7y ago

How many websites have you visited that are hosted or proxied by Comcast? The fact that Cloudflare is now mediating the connection on both ends is what makes it frightening.

cj 7y ago
Comcast operates a CDN, launched in 2014. [0] [1] After some googling, it's very unclear how popular their CDN service is. Based on some of their marketing, seems like it might be focussed more on the video delivery side, which would also make sense given that it's Comcast. (If it indeed is an enterprise video delivery service, they may only have a handful of very large customers) If this is accurate, it seems like Comcast also controls the data end-to-end (being both an ISP and CDN). [0] https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/ https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/ [1] https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/sites/default/files/2017-10/CDN%20One%20Sheet.pdf https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/sites/default/fil...

mr__y 7y ago

According to [0] between 5 and 10% of all websites use Cloudflare. Even using the lower number, I'm pretty sure that neither 5% of websites are hosted by Comcast nor that they serve 5% of internet users. This gives Cloudflare already a much larger potential to monitor/censor than Comcast has. I am not saying that they actively do so, just pointing out that they do have the scale and market share to do so. What is more, in contrast to said Comcast, they also have the ability to access unencrypted traffic for those 5-10% percent. [0] https://www.wired.com/story/cloudflare-spectrum-iot-protecti.. https://www.wired.com/story/cloudflare-spectrum-iot-protecti....

tripzilch 7y ago

You realize people are worried about more power being concentrated among less people, right?