How CleanBrowsing Works

CleanBrowsing enables you to limit access to explicit content such as pornography and inappropriate materials while also allowing you to block access to various other categories, including Gambling, Torrents, Gaming, Social Media, and more (comprising a total of 20 + predefined filters). This page will explain how CleanBrowsing works.

We help you create safe browsing experiences.

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CleanBrowsing is as a DNS-based content filtering (DNS Filter) service, designed to empower you in crafting a secure and wholesome online environment for your network.

CleanBrowsing Routing and Filtering

As a DNS resolver, CleanBrowsing is a fundamental component of how the internet operates. Every device connected to the internet relies on DNS (Domain Name System) for navigation. When users connect to the internet through CleanBrowsing's DNS resolver, their DNS requests undergo a thorough inspection. The inspection compares the request against our meticulously curated list of domain names categorized via our categorization engine.

Harnessing the power of this technology, CleanBrowsing delivers a hassle-free cloud service, eliminating the need for complex installations. This service effectively filters internet requests originating from your devices or network, putting you in control.

What CleanBrowsing Offers

With CleanBrowsing, you gain the capability to filter out content such as pornography, obscenity, malicious material, and a wide range of online categories that may not align with your network's values.

We provide both free and paid filtering options. Our free service comes with fixed features, while our paid services offer customization, allowing you to tailor the filtering experience to your specific needs. Secure your network with CleanBrowsing and experience the future of online safety.

How the CleanBrowsing DNS Resolver Works

DNS Filtering - Network Routing

DNS (Domain Name System) filtering is an essential networking tool that operates by intercepting and regulating the flow of internet traffic based on the domain names requested by users. This method helps organizations and individuals control and monitor their internet experience more effectively.

When users connect to the internet through CleanBrowsing's DNS resolver, their DNS requests undergo a thorough inspection. CleanBrowsing maintains a meticulously curated list of domain names categorized into various groups, such as explicit content, malware, gambling, and more.

DNS Anycast Network

The CleanBrowsing is built on an anycast network with over 50+ datacenters around the world. It leverages a proprietary machine learning platform for discovery and classification of new domains. As a DNS resolver, it is limited to filtering Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN)

Key highlights of our architecture include:

  • Redundancy through clustered environments
  • Redundancy through unique network pairs
  • Availability through a global anycast network (+ 50 POP)

Your Privacy

We built privacy and security into our network as a default tenant.

We were one of the first providers to support DNSCrypt (port 8443), DNS over TLS (port 853) and DNS over HTTPS (port 443) by default on our Anycast DNS network. DNSSEC is also enforced and validated.

When it comes to privacy, we have a very simple philosophy: Data that does not exist can not be compromised. We also believe that you should be in control of your privacy, so our free (public) filters do not log anything. It's part of our Privacy first. mantra.

Customers can choose what kind of logging they want (i.e., none, some, or a lot).

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We love working with individuals and organizations to better understand what they need, and how we can help.

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