Europe's privacy-first DNS pulls the plug overnight
European public DNS service DNS0.EU has shut down its operations immediately. In a brief statement, the provider said that continuing the service is no longer feasible.
European public DNS service DNS0.EU has shut down its operations immediately. In a brief statement, the provider said that continuing the service is no longer feasible.
- DNS0.EU has abruptly discontinued operations citing unsustainability in terms of time and resources, referring users to alternative European DNS resolvers like DNS4EU or NextDNS.
- The service was a privacy-focused, non-profit DNS resolver founded in 2023, operating 62 servers across 27 European cities with features including no-logs functionality, end-to-end encryption, and protection against malicious domains.
- Europe has lost one of its few independent, GDPR-compliant public DNS services that operated without US infrastructure dependency while focusing on digital sovereignty and European privacy standards.
“The DNS0.EU service has been discontinued. We would have liked to keep it running, but it was not sustainable for us in terms of time and resources. We sincerely thank all our infrastructure and security partners who made DNS0.EU possible,” DNS0.EU’s website says.
Users who wish to continue using an alternative European DNS resolver are referred to DNS4EU or NextDNS.
We would have liked to keep it running, but it was not sustainable for us in terms of time and resources. We sincerely thank all our infrastructure and security partners who made DNS0.EU possible,”DNS0.EU’s website says.
DNS, which is short for Domain Name System, is one of the most important technologies that determines how the internet works. It translates domain names into IP addresses. In other words, instead of remembering a set of numbers, you just have to enter the name of the website you want to visit. This translation process is also referred to as “resolving.”
Most internet users use their internet service provider’s DNS server to surf the web. Users who wish to have more control over their online privacy can choose other options, such as Google (8.8.8.8), Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), OpenDNS (208.67.222.222), or Quad9 (9.9.9.9).
DNS0.EU was a non-profit public resolver based in France and was founded in 2023 by Romain Cointepas and Olivier Poitrey. The founders promised no-logs functionality, end-to-end encryption to protect users from espionage, and protection against malicious domains. It operated 62 servers in 27 cities across several EU Member States.
DNS0.EU had two versions: a standard version and a child-friendly version. The standard version was developed to block malicious domains and risky top-level domains, domains generated by malware Domain Generation Algorithms, and domains that used Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) to mislead users.
The child-oriented version applied a filter to block harmful content for children, including piracy, pornography, and gambling sites. In addition, it blocked adult videos on YouTube, dating services, and advertisements.
With the demise of DNS0.EU, Europe lost one of the few public DNS services that operated independently from US infrastructure and was GDPR compliant by focusing on digital sovereignty and user protection according to European standards.
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