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Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

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Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#41

Post by JDye »

londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. 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…

I live in the UK and can't view a large portion of the internet without having to submit my ID to _every_ site serving anything deemed "not safe the for the children". I had a question about a new piercing and couldn't get info on it from Reddit because of that. I try using a VPN and they're blocked too. Luckily, I work at a copmany selling proxies so I've got free proxies whenever I want, but I shouldn't _need_ to use them.

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.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#42

Post by dataviz1000 »

ndiddy wrote: post #17
londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. 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…

If you look at the article, the network they disrupted pays software vendors per-download to sneakily turn their users into residential proxy endpoints. I'm sure that at least some of the time the user is technically agreeing to some wording buried in the ToS saying they consent to this, but it's certainly unethical. I wouldn't want to proxy traffic from random people through my home network, that's how you get legal…

They provide an SDK for mobile developers. Here is a video of how it works. [0] They don't even hide it.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9HLrwvUO4&t=15s

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#44

Post by a456463 »

londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. 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…

This blog post from the company that used promise "don't be evil", one that steals water for data centers from vilages and towns via shady deals, whose whole premise it stealing other people's stuff and claiming it as their own and locking them out and selling their data.. Who made them the arbiter of the internet? No one!!!

They just stole this and get on their high horse to tell people how to use internet? You can eff right off Google.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#45

Post by a456463 »

xg15 wrote: post #14
londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. 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…

Also, nevermind the tech companies building their own proxy networks, such as Find My or Amazon Sidewalk.

Agreed. With things people paid for and using our wifi data to build their "positioning dbs" that you can't block or turn off on your phone, without "rooting" your own device.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#46

Post by a456463 »

packetslave wrote: post #10
londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. 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…

[flagged]

Have you tried using it logged out on a vpn? It is impossible.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#47

Post by a456463 »

trollbridge wrote: post #26
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #4

> These efforts to help keep the broader digital ecosystem safe supplement the protections we have to safeguard Android users on certified devices. We ensured Google Play Protect, Android’s built-in security protection, automatically warns users and removes applications known to incorporate IPIDEA SDKs, and blocks any future install attempts. Nice to see Google Play Protect actually serving a purpose for once.

Yeah, it serves the purpose of blocking this kind of proxy traffic that isn't in Google's personal best interests. Only Google is allowed to scrape the web.

Yup exactly. Google must be the only one allowed to scrape the web. Google can't have any other competition. Calling it in "user's best interest" is just like their other marketing cons: "play integrity for user's security" etc

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#49

Post by Aurornis »

JDye wrote: post #41
londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. 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…

I live in the UK and can't view a large portion of the internet without having to submit my ID to _every_ site serving anything deemed "not safe the for the children". I had a question about a new piercing and couldn't get info on it from Reddit because of that. I try using a VPN and they're blocked too. Luckily, I work at a copmany selling proxies so I've got free proxies whenever I want, but I shouldn't _need_ to u…

> that they have to objectively ruin the site for everyone using it. See the API changes and killing off of third party apps.

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.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#50

Post by enneff »

xg15 wrote: post #14
londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. 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…

Also, nevermind the tech companies building their own proxy networks, such as Find My or Amazon Sidewalk.

How is Find My a proxy network?
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