Yeah, Nord is for example infamous for pimping out their users as scraping proxies: https://oxylabs.io/pricing/residential-proxy-pool
[0] https://www.techradar.com/news/judge-orders-mediation-after-...
"We are a market-leading web intelligence collection platform, driven by the highest business ethics"
I think that's a bit debatable!
Which then makes this viewpoint not that useful at all.
And this issue already been long summed up as “nothing is free in life.”
You might not like something, but does it really make it a dilemma in the sense of 'having to pick which of the 2 bulls horns will impale you?' - i don't think so. (interesting points though, and perhaps i am still missing your point!)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22532682
NordVPN used residential proxies at one point to enable access to Disney+ and other streaming services; that's a world apart from hijacking end-user connections.
They've got an open source client. Where's the code that's turning end users into endpoints?
The standard linux vpn client clearly has some exitnode capabilities.
I'm sorry but that's incredibly sketchy
But yes, it's also sketchy with the other implications and all, and not the least what kind of traffic that people want to hide that you're unknowingly a proxy to!
Where else would they get the 100 million users?
If they're truly hijacking end user clients, why don't you point to the section of their open source client that's responsible for that?
https://github.com/NordSecurity/nordvpn-linux
Easy enough to prove.
Credit or debit card, Klarna, PayPal, Google Pay, Cryptocurrencies
I never looked into that, but always used Nord VPN via the official OpenVPN client.
Individuals also, IMO, have a right to sell access to their network for scraping-via-proxy. But they should be prepared to deal with the consequences, like a potential IP ban. Most people using VPNs that resell their residential network for scraping probably don’t know that’s happening, and many scrapers are indeed doing something bad, which is why there is a disdain for the practice.
Yes, I realize that LinkedIn is a self aggrandizing cesspool. I never post anything there.
If a store owner doesn't want the reach, it's their loss. IMHO no need for a DoS attack.
Obviously for consumer it is better to be able to scrape sites. It is only those store owners (greedy capitalists) who do not want consumer to know that their prices are inflated.
Another thing is looking for some information, it is better just to have a language model go around the web and summarize the data for you rather than read someone's site with white letters on black background and weird font.