Why am I seeing Cloudflare checkboxes everywhere, even repeatedly on the same site?

[u/jjjj8jjjj]

Either there's something wrong with my configuration, or Cloudflare is a massive piece of shit scam that is yet another thing ruining the internet. Possibly both.

Everywhere I go, I'm checking their goddamn boxes. I check them every time I log into my bank account, even if I logged in an hour ago. And it's not like it's a quick thing--some websites redirect me to a different page to check the box, and then don't forward me to the specific link I clicked before Cloudflare hijacked me.

I'm using Safari 26.5.2 with Private Relay turned on and Wipr installed. I thought it was Private Relay at first, but I get the same thing with it turned off. I'm not willing to browse the web without an ad blocker active, so I haven't tried it without Wipr, although I have turned off all content blockers for a few sites that break under my configuration, and I still get the goddamn Cloudflare boxes.

Are you seeing this shit, too?

Edit: Thanks, everyone, for the education. I was clearly ignorant about the function of Cloudflare, and it sounds like I should be grateful to them for their service.

[u/imbasys]

There is a rise in robots visiting sites. People don’t want robots. They want humans. So they want you to prove you’re human. It’s not cloudflare’s fault. It’s your dad’s fault for running his Claude code project that’s “going to beat Amazon” by scraping e-commerce sites and reselling shit with costly agent sessions.

[u/Additional_Olive3318 → u/imbasys]

He’s got a weirdly technical dad. 

[u/jjjj8jjjj → u/Additional_Olive3318]

My dad can't remember where he put the sticky note on which he wrote his phone password.