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Comment by bharatsuthar | Hacker News Reader

This is just the largest residential proxy provider BrightData(previously Luminati that used a free VPN to source residential bandwidth)

The overall residential proxy market is too large and often undetected by intelligence tools. BrightData is actually much more compliant and malicious actors wouldn't be allowed access. They have an extensive KYC and use-case vetting process.

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There are so many residential proxy networks out there that it isn't as simple as just creating a block list.

And as already pointed out... many of the more popular networks actually do have KYC processes in place, in addition to blocking specific targets from being scraped through their network(s).

Haha no they dont, ive used brightdata and all you need is a credit card and you’re good to go It is shady AF.

Actually they have several different products based on IP type and quality. The credit-card only access you're talking about is for shared and flagged residential proxies. ISPs legally sell them to businesses and they can work for some use cases, but you need a video call and KYC to get access to a high quality IP pool, such as real mobile IPs they source from p2p services like VPNs.

There is nothing in that explanation that makes it sound anything like an above board trustworthy business that doesn't make one feel dirty for interacting with.

> you need a video call and KYC to get access to a high quality IP pool

They need to know who to blame (cough come after cough) if their top-shelf stock gets tainted by some script kiddie.

> just the largest residential proxy provider

So a pretty good first step in blocking then.

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