Traffic Centralization and Digital Sovereignty: An Analysis Under the Lens of DNS Servers

The Domain Name System (DNS) service is one of the pillars of the Internet. This service allows users to access websites on the Internet through easy-to-remember domain names rather than complex numeric IP addresses. However, the concentration of DNS service providers on the Internet affects user security, privacy, and network accessibility as the reliance on a small number of large DNS providers can lead to (a) risks of data breaches and disruption of service in the event of failures and (b) concerns about the digital sovereignty of countries regarding DNS hosting. This work approaches the issue of DNS concentration on the Internet by presenting a solution to measure DNS hosting centralization and digital sovereignty in different countries, such as Brazil, India, China, Russia, and South Africa. With the data obtained through these measurements, relevant questions are answered, such as which are the top-10 DNS providers, if there is DNS centralization, and how dependent countries are on such providers to manage domains using their country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD).