I've had enough of companies saying "you're connecting from an AWS IP address, therefore you aren't allowed in, or must buy enterprise licensing". Reddit is an example which totally blocks all data to non-residential IP's.
I want exactly the same content visible no matter who you are or where you are connecting from, and a robust network of residential proxies is a stepping stone to achieving that.
Or residential proxies get so widespread that almost every house has a proxy in, and it becomes the new way the internet works - "for privacy, your data has been routed through someone else's connection at random".
Is this a re-invention of tor, maybe I2P?
in a way, yes - the weakness of tor is realistically the lack of widespreadness. Tor traffic is identifiable and blockable due to the relatively rare number of exit nodes (which also makes it dangerous to run exit nodes, as you become "liable").
Engraining the ideas of tor into regular users' internet usage is what would prevent the internet from being controlled and blockable by any actor (except perhaps draconian gov't over reach, which while can happen, is harder in the west).
> While many residential proxy providers state that they source their IP addresses ethically, our analysis shows these claims are often incorrect or overstated. Many of the malicious applications we analyzed in our investigation did not disclose that they enrolled devices into the IPIDEA proxy network. Researchers have previously found uncertified and off-brand Android Open Source Project devices, such as television set top boxes, with hidden residential proxy payloads.
I find it funny that companies like Reddit, who make their money entirely from content produced by users for free (which is also often sourced from other parts of the internet without permission), are so against their site being scraped that they have to objectively ruin the site for everyone using it. See the API changes and killing off of third party apps.
Obviously, it's mostly for advertising purposes, but they love to talk about the load scraping puts on their site, even suing AI companies and SerpApi for it. If it's truly that bad, just offer a free API for the scrapers to use - or even an API that works out just slightly cheaper than using proxies...
My ideal internet would look something like that, all content free and accessible to everyone.
Third party app users were a very small but vocal minority. The API changes didn't drop their traffic at all. In fact, it's only gone up since then.
The datacenter IP address blocks aren't just for scrapers, it's an anti-bot measure across the board. I don't spend much time on Reddit but even the few subreddits I visited were starting to become infiltrated by obvious bot accounts doing weird karma farming operations.
Even HN routinely gets AI posting bots. It's a common technique to generate upvote rings - Make the accounts post comments so they look real enough, have the bots randomly upvote things to hide activity, and then when someone buys upvotes you have a selection of the puppet accounts upvote the targeted story. Having a lot of IP addresses and generating fake activity is key to making this work, so there's a lot of incentive to do it.
Really? Because I live in the UK and I've never been asked for my ID for anything.
The reason those IP addresses get blocked is not because of "who" is connecting, but "what"
Traffic from datacenter address ranges to sites like Reddit is almost entirely bots and scrapers. They can put a tremendous load on your site because many will try to run their queries as fast as they can with as many IPs as they can get.
Blocking these IP addresses catches a few false positives, but it's an easy step to make botting and scraping a little more expensive. Residential proxies aren't all that expensive, but now there's a little line item bill that comes with their request volume that makes them think twice.
> We need more residential proxies, not less
Great, you can always volunteer your home IP address as a start. There are services that will pay you a nominal amount for it, even.
Because if the deterrent here is a line item so small it shows up as 'miscellaneous vibes' on a balance sheet, that's not a barrier. That's a tip jar.
What will you be proxying? Nobody knows! I haven't had the police at my house yet.
Seems a great way to say "fuck you" to companies that block IP addresses.
You may see a few more CAPTCHAs. If you have a dynamic IP address, not many.
Doesn't the ISP detect them?
and why would they
I run a honeypot and the amount of bot traffic coming from AWS is insane. It's like 80% before filtering, and it's 100% illegitimate.
Based on what?
I think perhaps you merely meant to say that more than 99% of it is illegitimate?
Proxies actually help with that by facilitating mass account registration and scraping of the content without wasting a human's time "engaging" with ads.
(What else?)
Devices on Apple’s Find My aren’t broadcasting anything like packets that get forwarded to a destination of their choosing. I would think that would be a necessity to call it “proxying”.
They’re just broadcasting basic information about themselves into the void. The phones report back what they’ve picked up.
That doesn’t fit the definition to me.
I absolutely don’t mind the fact that my phone is doing that. The amount of data is ridiculously minuscule. And it’s sort of a tit for tat thing. Yeah my phone does it, but so does theirs. So just like I may be helping you locate your AirTag, you would be helping me locate mine. Or any other device I own that shows up on Find My.
It’s a very close to a classic public good, with the only restriction being that you own a relevant device.
Protocol insists the data only goes back to owner device or Apple server.
They just stole this and get on their high horse to tell people how to use internet? You can eff right off Google.