Cloudflare announces new 1.1.1.1 DNS service

With data privacy being one of the biggest concerns these days, internet security and infrastructure firm Cloudflare has announced a new Domain Name System service (DNS). With the launch of 1.1.1.1, Cloudflare claims it's the Internet's fastest, privacy-first consumer DNS service.

In simple terms, 1.1.1.1 focuses on privacy aspect by preventing the Internet Service Provider from tracking users' browsing history. Although even Cloudflare logs data to prevent abuse and debug issues, which the company claims to wipe within 24 hours (as the logs are not required post 24 hours). Cloudflare also promises that the company will never sell user data or use it to target ads. At the same time, Cloudflare claims 1.1.1.1 to be faster over Cisco OpenDNS, Google Public DNS and even average ISP.

This 1.1.1.1 DNS service is available for a wide range of devices including iPhone, Android devices, MacOS, Windows, Linux and even Routers. To access step-by-step setup guide, users can type 1.1.1.1 on the web browser and select the device platform for which they wish to access the settings for. 

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince in his blog post explains that the problem is that these DNS services are often slow and not privacy respecting. What many Internet users don't realise is that even if you're visiting a website that is encrypted, it doesn't keep your DNS resolver from knowing the identity of all the sites you visit. That means, by default, your ISP, every wifi network you've connected to, and your mobile network provider have a list of every site you've visited while using them.