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Google and Cloudflare basically owns the internet

by haunter 2y ago

bflesch 2y ago
only because we let them
baq 2y ago
It’s pax cloudflara. We let them in exchange for peace on the web. (Pax nubem would probably be too obscure…)
- lifthrasiir 2y ago
  Sounds very good if it were actually true! (And I think it is partly true, not entirely though.)
- ben_w 2y ago
  How about "Pax Nubis Lucifera"?
stavros 2y ago
At least Cloudflare has no network effects. They offer good services that I can migrate off of if I need to. Google owns my life and it's really hard to go elsewhere, even if I want to.
- Liquix 2y ago
  if cloudflare flags your IP/VPN/fingerprint/useragent/haircut good luck accessing 60% of the internet. their invisible turnstyles and captchas are everywhere
  - nathanaldensr 2y ago
    "haircut" LMAO. Is this a reference to something or just snark?
  - aqueueaqueue 2y ago
    But could you access that internet from within a CF worker as a workaround?
- pjc50 2y ago
  Cloudflare is the network. You have no control over whether other sites use it.
- robin_reala 2y ago
  It’s not that difficult to migrate from Google, there are plenty of good alternatives in every area. You just will probably not find everything integrated into one system, and you might have to pay for parts (but that’s OK, as you’re no longer the product). The trick is to start with the easy areas and gradually migrate bit by bit.
  - arkx 2y ago
    The essentials for me are private email, calendar & cloud storage. Here is my post-Google setup: https://tuta.com/ https://tuta.com/ is a German privacy-focused alternative that I'm currently using for email & calendar. Easy switch, although I was already using web clients rather than IMAP before the switch. I looked at Proton Drive for cloud storage, but their CEO Andy Yen is a Trump supporter (https://archive.ph/2025.01.15-162500/https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i1zjgn/so_that_happened/m7a91fs/ https://archive.ph/2025.01.15-162500/https://www.reddit.com/...), which makes me question his decision-making. I settled on a 5€ / month VPS from Hetzner and using Syncthing instead, but this requires some minimal amount of technical skills to set up and maintain. There is no alternative to YouTube, unfortunately.
    - robin_reala 2y ago
      Right, yes, YouTube is the big outlier. After I’d deleted my old Google account I created a new YouTube-specific account, and run it in a Firefox container to keep me logged out everywhere else.
      - webspinner 2y ago
        I did the same thing, created an Youtube specific account.

Google and Cloudflare basically owns the internet

bflesch 2y ago

only because we let them

baq 2y ago

It’s pax cloudflara. We let them in exchange for peace on the web. (Pax nubem would probably be too obscure…)

lifthrasiir 2y ago
Sounds very good if it were actually true! (And I think it is partly true, not entirely though.)
ben_w 2y ago
How about "Pax Nubis Lucifera"?

stavros 2y ago

At least Cloudflare has no network effects. They offer good services that I can migrate off of if I need to. Google owns my life and it's really hard to go elsewhere, even if I want to.

Liquix 2y ago
if cloudflare flags your IP/VPN/fingerprint/useragent/haircut good luck accessing 60% of the internet. their invisible turnstyles and captchas are everywhere
- nathanaldensr 2y ago
  "haircut" LMAO. Is this a reference to something or just snark?
- aqueueaqueue 2y ago
  But could you access that internet from within a CF worker as a workaround?
pjc50 2y ago
Cloudflare is the network. You have no control over whether other sites use it.
robin_reala 2y ago
It’s not that difficult to migrate from Google, there are plenty of good alternatives in every area. You just will probably not find everything integrated into one system, and you might have to pay for parts (but that’s OK, as you’re no longer the product). The trick is to start with the easy areas and gradually migrate bit by bit.
- arkx 2y ago
  The essentials for me are private email, calendar & cloud storage. Here is my post-Google setup: https://tuta.com/ https://tuta.com/ is a German privacy-focused alternative that I'm currently using for email & calendar. Easy switch, although I was already using web clients rather than IMAP before the switch. I looked at Proton Drive for cloud storage, but their CEO Andy Yen is a Trump supporter (https://archive.ph/2025.01.15-162500/https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i1zjgn/so_that_happened/m7a91fs/ https://archive.ph/2025.01.15-162500/https://www.reddit.com/...), which makes me question his decision-making. I settled on a 5€ / month VPS from Hetzner and using Syncthing instead, but this requires some minimal amount of technical skills to set up and maintain. There is no alternative to YouTube, unfortunately.
  - robin_reala 2y ago
    Right, yes, YouTube is the big outlier. After I’d deleted my old Google account I created a new YouTube-specific account, and run it in a Firefox container to keep me logged out everywhere else.
    - webspinner 2y ago
      I did the same thing, created an Youtube specific account.