# How do I uninstall Cloudfare? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2023, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342 "2023-02-25T06:54:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/1 "2023-02-25T06:54:15Z")
Odd thing is that somehow Cloudfare is now on my computer but the Cloudfare interface is all in Chinese. I think it’s on the machine and not on the websites I’m going to. I simply do not want the bloody thing on the machine. I checked online to see how to remove it and all the advice starts with finding it in the apps list. It’s not in the list on the computer. That’s yet another reason to jettison the damn thing. Anyway, how do I uninstall it? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/2 "2023-02-25T07:23:22Z")
Cloudflare isn’t an application. It is a security service provider on the Internet (and is now owned by Google). It services a _huge_ number of web sites, and there is every chance that all the sites you are seeing problems on are clients of Cloudflare, and ordinary content being served to you is, in part, coming from Cloudflare. I would be doing the usual rigmarole of clearing out cookies and generally ensuring you don’t have some errant state in your browser that is tripping Cloudflare up. Not impossible, but very unlikely, Cloudflare is the victim of nefarious activity. They are an attractive target for many reasons, but a _very_ hard target. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/3 "2023-02-25T08:43:54Z")
Thanks. I guess it’s like the speed bumps the Beijing government installed on the road in front of my apartment. They’re a hassle, but I really can’t complain about them doing something to make us all safer. The thing showing up in Chinese isn’t actually a red flag for me, what with me being in China. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/4 "2023-02-25T11:39:51Z")
Unless it’s just an OP typo I would be concerned about the difference between CLOUDF_ **L** _ARE and CLOUDFARE (uppercase for spelling clarity). One is a legit web server security front end. The other is ??? but name-alike malware is not unusual these days. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/5 "2023-02-25T13:35:28Z")
It’s a typo. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/6 "2023-02-25T14:45:10Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > They’re a hassle, but I really can’t complain about them doing something to make us all safer. Cloudflare isn’t about protecting you from websites, it is about protecting websites from you. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/7 "2023-02-25T15:34:14Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > isn’t about protecting you from websites, it is about protecting websites from you. Why did I hear that in my head with the voice of Yakov Smirnoff? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/8 "2023-02-25T21:05:31Z")
I forgot that this week is my turn to be Public Enemy #1. On a serious note, it’s sad, isn’t it, that we’ve reached that point? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-uninstall-cloudfare/980342/9 "2023-02-25T23:50:38Z")
Cloudflare is primarily a content delivery network. If you remember the bad old days of the internet, stuff went down _all the time_ if it got remotely popular (called Slashdotting in my circles, but any popular blog/link site could do the same). Pointing even a small portion of the entire internet at one site was guaranteed to slag it. Cloudflare, Amazon S3, and others solve the problem by sending most requests through a cache. And since the cache is common across huge swaths of the net, it has more than enough capacity to absorb these peaks. Almost as a side effect, this also solves the problem of DDoS attacks (distributed denial of service). Malicious actors noticed the Slashdot effect and used the same idea to take down sites they didn’t like. It’s not hard to round up enough capacity to take down one server. But again, Cloudflare and others have more than enough resources to just absorb these attacks without anyone noticing (we’re talking terabytes per second of bandwidth). Bad actors can’t get _that_ much capacity unless they are very clever. As for the errors you’re seeing, I’ve no idea, but it’s not impossible that it’s related to the Chinese government itself. Cloudflare surely has to abide by the Great Firewall rules to provide service there.