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Use Cloudflare’s New DNS Service to Speed Up the Internet While Also Protecting Your Data

By Laura Tucker
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Cloudflare seems to be solving two issues in one with their new Domain Name System (DNS) service. They are making claims of having the fastest DNS available presently while also promising to keep your browsing history safe, something that is becoming increasingly more important.

What Is a Domain Name System?

If you are unsure what a DNS is, rest assured it’s an integral part of the Internet. While we know websites by their alphanumeric names, such as “maketecheasier.com,” your computer actually accesses the websites via their IP address. Your ISP is responsible for routing you to the correct IP address based on the website name you type in.

The Central Registry has collected all the DNS throughout the Internet, and ISPs interact with it to get updated DNS information, as when a new domain name is registered or when a DNS service is updated, the Central Registry needs to update that information.

The Fastest DNS Resolver

Cloudflare launched the DNS resolver 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 last Sunday, and according to Gizmodo, it’s already the fastest DNS resolver, processing queries at 14.01 ms.

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OpenDNS was previously the fastest, processing queries at a global average of around 20.6 ms. While you won’t notice the difference much of 14.01 and 20.6 ms with just one query, that time savings does add up with multiple queries.

“While being a few milliseconds faster might not seem like a big deal, since DNS is the foundation of everything online, whenever you click on a link, or send an email, or open a mobile app, almost every action you take requires a DNS lookup,” says Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince. “So those milliseconds add up pretty quickly.”

Data Handling

Additionally, Cloudflare offers another benefit. Prince explains that they view user data as a “toxic asset.” They strive to either never collect it or delete it as quickly as possible if they do happen to collect it.

“Just at a policy level, Cloudflare’s business has never been advertising or selling consumer data,” added Prince. “As we started to talk to various browser manufacturers and others about what we were doing, they would come back and say, ‘Well, we don’t want you to retain logs for any longer than a week, we don’t want you selling any of the data.’

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“And I think they were kind of surprised when we returned back and said, ‘Actually, we prefer never to write any personally identifiable information to disk and guarantee that we’ll wipe all of the transactional logs and bug tracking logs within 24 hours.’ “

He also points to the FCC rule change, as those who use DNS services that were set up by their ISPs are at risk of having their browsing history recorded, sold, and analyzed for advertising.

To prevent that, you can either use a VPN or the Tor browser, but those can affect your speed, and as we’ve discussed here recently, some VPNs are also collecting your data.

Updating Your DNS Settings

And that’s when changing your DNS settings becomes more beneficial. It’s actually a simple process as we’ve explained before. Just make sure to change the addresses to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.

Have you ever changed your DNS settings? How did that work out for you? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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