Disclaimer: We operate in this space so we obviously have an interest in being able to detect these threats going forward.
As a webmaster I don’t want non-user traffic except search engines. It’s a waste of money and often entails security, privacy and commercial risk.
Without Cloudflare I’d achieve only slightly less effective results using an AWS WAF, another CDN, or hand rolling solutions out of ipinfo etc.
Closed partnerships programs are a bit concerning though. Once they’re up and running there’s an enormous economic incentive for CF to squeeze members with fees that capture the economic upside.
We intentionally do not provide an IP reputation service as many sophisticated bots mimic the "good reputational" aspect of IP addresses. Usage of residential connections or essentially being vetted by CDN/cloud services makes making bot detection ambiguous.
That is why we provide accurate IP metadata information. Whenever you detect patterns of bot-like behavior, look up the metadata such as privacy service usage, ASN, or assigned company, and then start blocking them via the firewall.
Not so good for security work.
It’s similar to their abuse reporting. They give your info to the site owner. Gee thanks, that’s just what I want to do.