Cloudflare has announced a plan to create a privacy-preserving protocol called PACT that aims to automate the management of AI agents, with the ultimate goal of reducing user conflicts with websites. The new protocol will make it easier for AI bots to communicate with websites by proving that there is a human in the loop, thus enabling the AI agent to work while blocking websites that bad bots don’t want.
Cloudflare underlies much of the Internet’s infrastructure and is increasingly providing infrastructure for AI agents, including systems that can intercept and block AI bots.
For example, Cloudflare introduced Cloudflare Agents, a framework that allows developers to implement AI agents. Its infrastructure works with local LLMs through Cloudflare Tunnels, OpenClaw includes native integration with Cloudflare AI Gateway, and Chinese LLMs can also be delivered through the Cloudflare gateway. Many of its services, such as Temporary Cloudflare Accounts, are free.
It makes sense that Cloudflare is taking a leading role in developing PACT because the systems and programs will manage the agent AI bots its newly hosted systems.
Browsers and Shopify Get Aboard
Browser makers Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox have signed on to help develop the new open protocol. Shopify is also mentioned in the announcement as a participant.
Ilya Grigorik, a former engineer and developer advocate at Google, led the launch of the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) and is now a Distinguished Engineer and Technical Advisor at Shopify. He explained that PACT is a way to help merchants increase sales while protecting ecommerce stores from abusive bots. He said users will be able to take advantage of the agent’s AI features without sacrificing privacy control.
Grigorik explained:
“In commerce, every additional challenge, delay, or false trust can turn a purchase into an abandoned cart. Sellers need effective protection from automated abuse, but buyers shouldn’t have to pay for unnecessary hassles or invasive tracking. Shopify is proud to help develop PACT as an open, privacy-preserving standard that can help millions of businesses and allow businesses to differentiate our businesses from the consumer privacy platform.”
Private Access Control Tokens (PACT)
Cloudflare’s announcement was vague about how the new system would work, using jargon like “sites with strong ‘personal’ information” to describe how the system works.
Cloudflare explained:
“Private Access Control Tokens (PACT) are designed to allow sites with strong “personality” information to issue anonymous tokens. The user’s browser can then provide these tokens to other sites to authenticate the person, reducing the need for annoying or cryptic captchas or offensive tracking. PACT is designed so that their sites cannot identify their users or use them for historical purposes.”
PACT is supported by many major browser makers and Shopify is already on board with it. It’s not yet released, and there’s no announced timeline for the new protocol, but Cloudflare sees PACT as another way to tie the world’s agent AI to its infrastructure:
“PACT is being used on the Cloudflare network it increases the level of trust and integrity on the Internet without the usual costs.”
Unanswered Questions
PACT is not a product or service, it is a protocol for managing AI agent trust across the Internet. Cloudflare puts its infrastructure at its center: “PACT on the Cloudflare network raises the bar for reliability and integrity on the Internet without traditional costs.”
Major browser makers Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox are participating in the development of PACT, positioning it as a protocol that could become part of the web’s trust infrastructure for AI agents. This is important because the agreements specify the boundaries, rules, and regulation of the entire ecosystem.
The purpose of this new protocol is to promote trust while ensuring user privacy. Cloudflare benefits from gaining more control over the AI agent infrastructure.
PACT Leads to the Post-CAPTCHA Internet
PACT’s inherent quality is that it leads the web beyond traditional anti-bot defenses such as CAPTCHAs, forced logins, browser fingerprinting, and invasive tracking. Those methods are designed for the human web where the links are clicked. Agent AI with humans in the loop is changing what’s happening because now bots are expected to take on roles built for the web. That’s the problem the PACT standard aims to solve, a new way to distribute trust in the agent web.
Who Defines Personality?
Cloudflare says that sites with strong “identity” information will issue anonymous trust tokens, but it doesn’t specify who those issuers will be. Will it be ecommerce sites? Will that be Cloudflare issuing trust tokens? That important detail was left out of Cloudflare’s announcement. It sounds like a third-party trust signal that means gatekeeping can shift from individual websites and up to platforms, browsers, and infrastructure providers that decide which humans, bots, and AI agents are seen as trustworthy.
Featured image by Shutterstock/selino photo
