Free & open lists
The blocklists are free, open data. Take them, use them, redistribute them — no fee, no account, no attribution required.
Purge.cc provides curated DNS blocklists and the Warden filtering software as a free, open project. This page sets out the terms of use and the disclaimers that apply — in plain language: what the service is, what it is not, and where your responsibility begins. Using Purge.cc means you accept these terms.
The blocklists are free, open data. Take them, use them, redistribute them — no fee, no account, no attribution required.
Everything is offered as-is, with no warranty. The service may be changed, interrupted or discontinued at any time.
DNS filtering blocks known-bad domains. It is a useful layer, not a complete security solution.
How you deploy, configure and rely on the lists and Warden is your responsibility — including any resulting damage.
By accessing this website, downloading or using the blocklists, or deploying the Warden software, you accept these Terms of Use in full. If you do not agree with any part of them, please do not use the service.
These terms apply to everything Purge.cc offers: the website, the DNS blocklists and the Warden filtering software. They work alongside our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, which form part of the same agreement.
Purge.cc is an independent project, run today by a single maintainer and open to anyone who wants to contribute. Where these terms refer to we, us or the operator, they mean Edoardo Piccolotto, Via Berna 11/6, 20147 Milano, Italy, who operates Purge.cc.
Purge.cc curates and publishes DNS blocklists: plain lists of domain names associated with advertising, tracking, malware, phishing and similar unwanted activity. You point your DNS resolver, Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, Warden or router at them, and matching domains stop resolving.
The lists are static files. We do not run a DNS resolver on your behalf, we do not see your queries, and we do not know which domains you actually block. What you do with the lists happens entirely on your own infrastructure.
Warden is our companion software that applies these lists and filters network traffic actively. It carries its own licensing and liability terms, set out in sections 07 and 08.
The website, the blocklists and the Warden software are provided as is and as available, without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied — including, without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy or non-infringement.
We make no promise that the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, or that the lists are complete, current or free of mistakes. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of it — including the lists, the download endpoints or Warden — at any time and without notice.
The blocklists in particular are aggregated from many third-party sources and can never be complete or perfectly accurate. Applying them can block legitimate domains and break website navigation, apps or communications — sometimes in ways that are hard to predict. You deploy them at your own risk and stay responsible for testing them against your own needs.
Treat Purge.cc as a best-effort community resource, not a guaranteed service. Keep your own copy of any list you depend on, and don't build a critical system that breaks if a list changes or a URL goes offline.
Our blocklists are aggregated and curated from many third-party sources and community submissions. Because of this, we cannot individually verify every entry, and we cannot guarantee that a specific domain is — or is not — included.
Inclusion of a domain is not an accusation against its owner. Domains can appear on upstream lists for many reasons, and classifications change over time. If a domain you rely on is blocked (a false positive), the fix is on your side:
We do our best to keep the lists clean and useful, but the responsibility for what is ultimately blocked on your network stays with you.
DNS-level blocking is a useful layer of defense — not a complete security solution. It works by refusing to resolve known-bad domain names, and it cannot protect you from everything.
Keep DNS filtering as one part of a layered setup (defense in depth). Relying on it as your only protection is a mistake we explicitly warn against.
The Purge.cc blocklists are completely free and open. There is no licensing fee, no subscription, no account and no attribution requirement. You may:
We treat the lists as open data: take them, use them, share them freely. A credit or a link back is always appreciated, but it is never required. The upstream sources we aggregate may carry their own terms; where they do, please respect them.
This open, redistribute-freely stance applies to the data — the lists. The Warden software is different: see the next section.
Warden is the software that applies our blocklists and actively filters network traffic. It is free and open-source software, published under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPL-3.0) — a strong copyleft license.
This means you are free to read, audit, run, self-host, modify and redistribute Warden — including commercially. You can inspect exactly how it works and run your own instance, with no licensing fee and no permission needed from us.
In return, the AGPL's copyleft keeps Warden open. If you distribute Warden — or run a modified version as a network service that others interact with — you must release your version under the same AGPL-3.0 terms and make its complete source code available to those users (this network clause is what the "Affero" in AGPL adds). You may not take Warden proprietary: you cannot relicense it under closed terms or ship a closed-source fork.
In short — the lists are open, freely redistributable data; Warden is copyleft open source under AGPL-3.0. Use it, self-host it, build on it and share it freely — just keep it open, and pass the same freedom on to your users.
Because Warden actively filters traffic, its behavior depends entirely on how you configure and operate it. It is provided as is, with no warranty of any kind. You are solely responsible for your deployment, and by running Warden you accept that:
Being open source, Warden puts the operator in control — and with that control comes the responsibility. The Purge.cc maintainers accept no liability whatsoever for how you deploy, configure or rely on Warden, or for any consequence of the traffic it filters or fails to filter. If you are not comfortable owning that responsibility, do not deploy it in a critical environment.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Purge.cc maintainers shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages — including, without limitation, loss of data, loss of profits, loss of revenue, business interruption or loss of goodwill — arising out of or in connection with:
This applies whether the claim is based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence) or any other legal theory, and whether or not we have been advised of the possibility of such damage.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain liabilities. Where that is the case, the exclusions above apply to the maximum extent the law permits, and nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
Purge.cc is a privacy-first project and collects the bare minimum. Using the blocklists requires no account and no personal data. For the website itself, the short version is:
We collect no personally identifying information beyond this, and we never sell your data. For the full picture, see our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
We may update these terms to reflect changes in the service, the software or the law. The current version and its date are always shown at the top of this page. Substantial changes will be highlighted here and, where appropriate, announced via the newsletter.
Your continued use of Purge.cc after an update means you accept the revised terms. If you do not agree with a change, stop using the service and, where relevant, remove Warden from your systems.
Questions about these terms, the lists, Warden's license or a blocked domain? Write to us at privacy@purge.cc or by post to Via Berna 11/6, 20147 Milano, Italy — a real person answers, not an automated form. You'll find our other contact details below.