Cloudflare is a great internet company#
Cloudflare is a great company, and its greatness is manifested in providing services for 20% of the internet's web pages, providing sufficient basic functionality for free users, including DNS resolution, CDN, Workers, Pages, email, and other services. As can be seen from the previously shared collection of excellent Cloudflare Workers projects on this blog, Cloudflare is truly a conscientious company, known as the "Great Benefactor" "Cyber Bodhisattva".
Issues with Cloudflare accounts, such as account deletion and service suspension#
Recently, Cloudflare users have encountered situations where their accounts have been deleted or disabled.
We have received feedback from users of Nodeseek, Linux.do forum, TG groups, etc., stating that their Cloudflare accounts have encountered problems, including two scenarios: 1. The account can be logged in, but the domain cannot be used normally; 2. The account cannot be logged in (possibly deleted).
In the first scenario, a notification email regarding domain suspension is usually sent. In this case, it is highly likely that the suspension can be lifted through email feedback. Refer to this post for more information.
In the second scenario, the main issue is that the email and password used to register the Cloudflare account cannot be used to log in. After registering and logging in with the original account's email, the account content is empty (equivalent to account deletion). According to official announcements, some of the recent cases of account deletion by Cloudflare were due to operational mistakes.
Some of the reasons are because users violated Cloudflare's terms of service. The main manifestations are as follows: firstly, using Cloudflare's services to reverse proxy and accelerate Github, Onedrive, Dockerhub, etc.; secondly, using domains that are served by Cloudflare to impersonate other company's official websites (impersonating websites that require account and password), which are flagged as fraudulent by Netcraft and others; thirdly, other forms of abuse (such as using Workers to handle PB-level traffic). In the case of the second scenario, even for banned or "deleted" users, it is still possible to consider sending an email using the email registered with the Cloudflare account to provide feedback, which may help recover account data and information.
Methods to deal with the situation#
Based on the analysis above, the recent issues with Cloudflare user accounts are likely due to user behavior that violated Cloudflare's terms of service. However, considering that Cloudflare acknowledges the occurrence of accidental deletions within the company, users can try to write emails in a rational and friendly manner to provide feedback on the issue, which may have a chance of recovering various account information.
In cases where user accounts have been disabled, some users have managed to analyze data and obtain the Domain Transfer Key API for their domains, ultimately transferring the domains out and recovering them. Refer to this article for more information.
Appreciate the services provided by Cloudflare#
For Cloudflare accounts that host important data or services, it is advisable to avoid engaging in activities that violate Cloudflare's terms of service. Otherwise, the suspension of services or deletion of account information will bring unnecessary trouble to oneself or the company. Of course, even for regular accounts, there is no need to violate Cloudflare's terms of service. Cloudflare is a conscientious internet company, but if one takes advantage of their services excessively, the company may find it difficult to sustain.
Note#
Issues with Cloudflare users also seem to include the use of Cloudflare accounts to set up cloud storage services. In the collection of excellent Cloudflare Workers projects (continuously updated), there are projects that use Workers to build cloud storage or cloud storage listing services, which may potentially violate Cloudflare's terms of service. It is recommended to carefully consider these projects.