The concentration of power in Cloudflare is an architectural compromise that undermines everything TLS was designed to protect. Its operational design requires it to function as a Man-In-The-Middle (MITM), an engineered choke point that fundamentally subverts real end-to-end encryption. It basically serves as the single most efficient platform for potential mass-surveillance ever built.

When you connect to a site proxied through them, Cloudflare must terminate the TLS connection. Why? So they can inspect, filter, and "optimize" your traffic. This means that inside your "secure connection", they always have the symmetric key to decrypt the traffic.

Think about that: The connection you see as a secure padlock is decrypted, modified, and proxied in plaintext by an intermediary. Cloudflare is, by definition, an MITM. It's the core function of their service. It's as if Cloudflare was designed to be a mass-surveillance tool.

Cloudflare is the ultimate concentration of digital risk. The architecture is fundamentally engineered for deep-level interception and universal data logging, holding the master key for vast segments of the global internet. It creates a single, irresistible point at which to perform mass dragnet surveillance across the entire client base. This data concentration is so potent, you could practically hear the high-fives echoing between the NSA and GCHQ over gaining the master key to global network traffic.

We are paying for the perceived security benefit of CDN and DDoS protection by surrendering cryptographic integrity. We must recognize that the performance gains offered by this centralized model are a Trojan horse. They introduce a massive, singular vulnerability into the heart of the web. It's time to demand a return to decentralized web, where no single entity holds the master key to the internet.

"Cloudflare - SSL Added and removed here! :-)", reference to the NSA's famous note. Image: CC-BY-SA 4.0 justjanne