How To Make Sure You’re Using A Legitimate Proxy Provider And Not …
The 72 million+ IP addresses that make up our global proxy networks all belong to fully opted-in users, though not all proxy providers can say the same
20-Feb-2020
When you use a residential-based proxy service, make sure your proxy provider is acting ethically and legally, and that their infrastructure can handle the scale you require. Otherwise, it may harm your business and cause more harm than good. You wouldn’t risk using non-licensed software, so avoid cutting corners when choosing a proxy service. Here are the six factors to identify an ethical partner.
Our IP proxy network is built from millions of unique IP addresses from users who have willingly opted-in to the service in return for ad-free applications or free software. Some proxy providers do not get consent from their peers to share their idle resources, and users are unaware they are being used as proxies. There’s no pop-up screen to announce it, no consent and no option to opt-out, and this constitutes virus-like behavior. Check the following to make sure your proxy provider is doing things right:
End users (peers) have given their consent
Informed consent is the only legal way for a proxy provider to obtain residential and/or mobile IP addresses for the purposes of website testing, ad verification and anything else you use a proxy network for. Your proxy provider’s network should only encompass actively and willingly opted-in peers.
Opted-in users know exactly what their IP address is being used for, and how their device is being used. The proxy provider has asked for their permission to use their IP, and they have knowingly agreed to join the proxy network.
We acquire our peers for our residential and mobile IP networks through the Bright SDK. Our SDK is integrated into apps by their owners as an extra way of monetizing their users. Users are presented with the option to opt-in to our network and become a peer in exchange for better user experience (ads-free app) or free access to paid services.
The proxy provider is GDPR compliant
GDPR is the EU’s data protection regulatory framework, and compliance is essential to staying on the right side of the law. In short, it refers to data protection, privacy, and transfer, both within the EU and outside of it.
Any proxy provider, and its customers, should understand the importance of giving users greater control over their privacy and data. Privacy practices should comply with data protection laws like the GDPR, and industry best practices.
We ensure our GDPR compliance by obtaining full consent from our peers to use their IP address and treating this personal data according to the GDPR guidelines. Other than IP addresses, we do not collect any personally identifiable information from our peers at any point.
The proxy provider provides real benefits for peers
A legitimate proxy provider will incentivize app users to join its network in some way. This might be an ad-free version of an app, accessing paid features or subscriptions for free or some other value-added compensation.
As a result, app owners can provide better user experiences at the same time as generating extra revenue from their users. We have found that 80% of app users would prefer to be part of our IP proxy network to watching ads or paying for subscriptions. We also see a 10 to 15% increase in the time spent in an app with users that have opted into our network.
In return for joining our network, our peers can enjoy an improved experience with the removal of ads or free usage of an app. Plus our SDK is so lightweight, it won’t affect the size of the app.
Peers can opt-out at any time
Giving peers the option to opt-out whenever they want should be part of every ethical proxy provider’s service, but unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. If a proxy provider is failing to ask users to opt-in, they probably won’t be giving them the opportunity to opt-out either.
App users might decide for whatever reason that they don’t want to be part of an IP proxy network anymore, and they are happy to revert back to the non-ad-free version of an app, for example.
We are committed to being an ethical and safe provider, so all peers who share their IP address with our residential and mobile networks have the option to opt-out at any time.
Traffic is only routed through peers’ devices when they’re idle
Using an end user’s device to route traffic when they are actively using it could slow it down and impede on their user experience.
A legitimate proxy provider will not use its peers’ devices and IP addresses unless they are idle at the time, to make sure the user experience is unimpacted while they use their device.
Once an app user has agreed to share their device resources and become a peer on our IP networks, our infrastructure ensures traffic is only routed through the device under strict conditions. These include the device being idle and having sufficient battery power or connected to a power source, and usually, but not always, connected to WiFi.
The proxy provider uses super proxies
Super proxies allow for the fastest data collection possible, by acting as load-balancing servers and being placed in close proximity to our peers in all geolocations. They enable us to route terabytes of traffic to exit nodes around the world, helping us – and you as our customer – carry out reliable, scalable web data extraction and aggregation operations.
They also act as a security measure. Accessing our rotating residential and mobile IP networks require User compliance evaluation, and super proxies help manage traffic coming in and ensure that it is compliant with our Terms of Service. They also strip any identifying information from requests to target websites made through our network, so they are not traceable back to the super proxy or you.
Our super proxy infrastructure consists of more than 2, 600 servers stationed close to our peers worldwide, and 1, 400+ servers in the US alone.
If you use any residential proxy service other than ours, make sure the service does not include servers and/or residential proxy nodes located in the United States which infringe on any of our patents.
Want to find out how an ethical proxy provider works in practice?
Hayley Pearce | Content Writer
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What Are Residential Proxies And Why Do You Need Them?
A proxy is crucial for a better data collection. Learn how Rotating Residential Proxies can help you maintain your competitive advantage
24-Oct-2019
Residential proxies allow you to choose a specific location (country, city, or a mobile carrier) and surf the web as a real-user in that area. Proxies can be defined as intermediaries that protect users from general web traffic. They act as buffers while also concealing your IP address. Proxies are alternative IP addresses assigned to users by the provider.
All the user’s search requests are channeled via the proxy IP to the proxy server then to the resource server. This way, the user’s activity is concealed and identity remains anonymous.
How residential proxies work
Residential proxies essentially route your internet traffic through an intermediary server. The proxy server assigns you an alternative IP through which all of your server requests are channeled.
Note that the alternative IP address assigned, belongs to a real device. When you make a search request, it is conveyed to the resource server via your residential proxy. This way, your real IP is concealed, and sites perceive your activity as that of any other regular user.
Depending on the provider, an ideal residential proxy package affords the option of targeting countries, cities and all requests should be HTTPS encrypted for security.
So, what are some uses of residential proxies?
Residential IPs are genuine and more trustworthy compared to other types of proxies. Depending on your browsing needs, one can use residential proxies for different purposes. Here are some uses of residential proxies you may want to consider.
Ad verification
This is a very common use of residential proxies as they provide the means of checking and verifying ads displayed on your pages allowing you to recognize and block suspicious ads. Without adequate AD verification, your competitors may use devious means to damage your brand reputation.
It is advisable to choose a residential proxy provider that is very easy to use. The right platform should enable you to choose residential or mobile IPs for accurate ad tracking, media monitoring, and content compliance. All these are reasons to consider residential IPs for your ad verification.
Web scraping
Internet marketing goes far beyond casual ads and social media posts. You’ve got to study your competitors and learn their ways. The best way to access your competitor’s info is by web scraping. Web scraping with residential proxies is possible because they support mass scraping by allowing you to continuously rotate the IPs. It is important to note that data center proxies can also be used for web scraping. Are you confused about data center IP proxy? Learn from this post. However, they are best suited for use on a much smaller scale. If you want to do large scale scraping on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other giant sites, residential proxies are the best.
Market price monitoring
To keep your client’s coming, it is necessary to monitor and comply with the market pricing trends. You don’t want to overprice your products and scare away potential clients or underprice and get customers doubting the quality. With residential proxies, you will be able to leverage sales intelligence tools to give you timely market price updates.
The data gathered by your sales intelligence software should be analyzed appropriately. If not done appropriately, you are likely to end up with the wrong pricing info, which can be very damaging to your business sales efforts. Overall, residential proxies make it possible for you to use different sales intelligence software. With that info, it is possible to do price monitoring, comparison, and analysis to come up with an acceptable price for your products.
Accessing sneaker sites
Shoe sites are often tightly monitored. This is because of identity theft, design copying and purchase limitations that are rife in the industry. Even so, it is still possible to access all the information you may require from these sites. Residential proxies provide ad verification in an excellent way to access sneaker sites. Sneaker proxies are overrated.
In truth, sneaker proxies can be data center IP proxies. However, with your shoe bots, sneaker proxies are still blocked by sites like Nike, EastBay, and Supreme Shoes. The way to get around this problem is by using residential proxies. They are trusted and less prone to blacklisting by popular shoe sites.
Accessing ticket sites
When it comes to scraping ticket sites, there’s no better way than using residential proxies. They will grant the access you need to easily compare ticket prices across different providers.
Many different ticket proxies are available, the problem with these is that they are mostly data center proxies. Data center IPs are easy to identify and tickets sites easily notice and ban users of these IPs. Most sites trust residential proxies, ticket sites included. Use them to access all the info you want from different ticket providers.
Internet marketing
This is a comprehensive platform. Site owners are always looking for ways to get ahead of their competitors. In such competitive settings, the best way to survive is by studying the ways of your competitors. Harness the power and potential of residential proxies to maximize your marketing potential. Make use of ads automation, social media campaigns, and email automation to improve your market reach.
SEO content complianceResidential proxies support different SEO tools. The platform supports a whole lot of tools besides Scrapebox and Xrumer. Appropriate onsite SEO improves your site’s traffic and leads. By scraping competitor sites, you get info about their keywords and sources of traffic.
You can also tweak your site contents to support multiple languages. Link building to and from an authority site is also crucial. With the right tools, the residential proxy platform allows you to create meaningful links for your website to flourish. You also get to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of previous links. There are different audit and crawling tools you can use for such tasks allowing you to optimize your site to improve its performance.
Social media management
There’s no second-guessing the power of social media in modern web marketing. With residential proxies, it is now possible to create multiple social media accounts and manage them seamlessly.
What to consider before buying Residential Proxies
BudgetResidential proxies are often very expensive. Nevertheless, you can always find a better deal. All you need to do is compare prices between providers.
Purpose and use
Why do you need residential proxies? This is a very pertinent question. It is for basic security and small scale scraping, then think again. Maybe you don’t need residential proxies. Datacenter proxies might as well be what you need. On the other hand, if you want a proxy package for large scale scraping, anonymity, and security, then you need residential proxies.
Always strive to know why you need residential proxies. It is not prudent to spend so much while maybe you could do just fine with a cheap shared proxy package. This also applies when buying different residential proxy packages.
Compatibility with automation tools
Such as for SEO, if you are into this for site optimization, then you better check and confirm that the residential proxy package supports SEO tools. Be sure to verify that prior to purchasing
Site unlockingResidential proxies make it possible to stream content from geo-restricted sites without ever being blocked or flagged. Some providers may have blocked IPs, check and verify the package before making a payment.
That is it for this round-up of residential proxies. This post is meant to help you understand residential proxies and why you need them.
John McHenry | Founder of, Data analyst and Web developer
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Datacenter Proxies vs. Residential Proxies: The Differences Explained
You will agree with me that proxies open a whole world of possibilities for both businesses and individuals. But then, choosing the perfect solution between datacenter vs. residential proxies is the biggest challenge. If you are not sure which is the best option, this article tells it all. Find out more about these two proxies, how they work, the pros and cons of each, their applications, how they compare, and more. To start this comparison review, here is an overview of proxies. What are Proxies? What Are Datacenter Proxies and When You Should Use Them? Free vs. Paid Datacenter ProxiesHow Datacenter Proxies WorkApplications of Datacenter ProxiesHow to Create Datacenter ProxiesAdvantages of Datacenter ProxiesDisadvantages of Datacenter ProxiesDatacenter ProxiesWhat Are Residential Proxies and When You Should Use Them? Free vs. Paid Residential Proxies How Residential Proxies WorkApplications of Residential ProxiesHow to Create Residential ProxiesAdvantages of Residential ProxiesDisadvantages of Datacenter ProxiesResidential ProxiesAre Residential Proxies Better than Datacenter Proxies and Why? Which Proxies Should You Choose? What are Proxies? Datacenter Proxies Proxy servers act as gateways between you and the internet. While in the past, proxy servers were for forwarding web requests for data security and performance, modern proxies go an extra mile. They can be used at both personal and enterprise levelsNow, there are different types of proxies, including datacenter proxies and residential proxies, two of the most popular proxy types. These two proxies have different capabilities and applications. So, it’s essential to know the different features of each proxy and what they are best suited for. That’s the next segment in this residential vs. datacenter proxies comparison review. What Are Datacenter Proxies and When You Should Use Them? As the name suggests, datacenter proxies are proxies housed in expansive datacenters and used across connections worldwide. For the record, datacenter proxies are not in any way attached to your internet service provider (ISP) or internet connection. Datacenter IPs are owned and operated by large enterprises such as Azure Cloud, Digital Ocean, AWS (Amazon Web Services). Free vs. Paid Datacenter Proxies The market has both free and paid datacenter proxies. The difference between residential and datacenter proxies is self-explanatory. While the former is available at no cost, the latter requires users to buy a subscription. Free datacenter proxy providers don’t guarantee reliability and are prone to blacklisting and bans. Worse enough, they don’t control the usage of their services. That’s why they are not recommended. How Datacenter Proxies Work Datacenters work in a pretty simple way. When you send a request to a particular website, the request is processed via the datacenter proxy server. After that, the server masks your IP address by assigning it a different IP address before sending the request. The feedback of the request is then sent back via the newly assigned IP address before forwarding the feedback back to you. This way, websites won’t know the true origin of the request. Applications of Datacenter Proxies Datacenter proxies are deployed in datacenters located on cloud servers, dedicated servers, virtual private servers, etc. Below are some of the uses of datacenter proxies. Anonymous browsing. Datacenter proxies are not located in real residential locations. So, you can browse anonymously without leaking your real cessing geo-restricted content. Streaming sites, including Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and the rest, restrict content to specific countries. But with a datacenter proxy, you can bypass these restrictions. Datacenter proxies have a vast network of locations to allow users to connect to servers in the country where the content they want is not passing IP address bans. Datacenter proxies are suitable for resolving IP bans. Once you connect to the datacenter proxy, your real IP is masked, and a new one is assigned. This way, the website will not know it’s you, the owner of the banned IP media management. Today, social media sites work overtime to detect and delete fake profiles and users with multiple accounts. The red flag in most cases is a single IP address being linked to different accounts. Datacenter proxies are best here as you can connect to a different proxy each time you log in to a different on competitors’ ads. Datacenter proxies can be used to snoop on the ads of competitors. You can compare the ads competitors serve to the different audiences in different countries by connecting to datacenter proxies in the specific countries you are interested in. Testing ads delivery. Before rolling out an ads campaign, you need to do rigorous testing to ensure they are delivered in the right way to the different audiences in different countries. To do this, you can connect to datacenter proxies in the country of research. To conduct extensive market research, it’s essential to switch between different countries to get a clear picture of the various markets. Doing this ensures that you develop an objective and sustainable marketing road ademic research. Some academic content is restricted to specific countries. To access such content, datacenter proxies are the best. What’s more? Data scientists rely on datacenter proxies to scrape academic data. How to Create Datacenter Proxies To create a datacenter proxy, you need to buy or rent multiple servers. The more IP addresses you want, the more servers you will need. In case you wish to offer multiple locations, you will need to invest in servers from different datacenters in different locations. After creating your datacenter proxy, you will need to have a clear maintenance plan to ensure that they are always on to guarantee reliability. Advantages of Datacenter Proxies Fast speeds – Datacenter proxies are engineered to allow for fast connections and support high bandwidths. Extensive list of IP addresses – Datacenters have large volumes of IP addresses that can be used and be disposed of rapidly, making them best for web fordability – Because data center proxies are based on shared servers, they are more affordable than residential proxies. Untraceable location – Datacenter proxies are not based on real locations, so they offer a higher level of location adily available – Datacenter proxies are the most common proxies because it’s easy to set up the datacenter infrastructure. Disadvantages of Datacenter Proxies Prone to bans and blacklisting – From their nature, datacenter proxies are susceptible to blacklisting and IP variety – While they can have large volumes of IP addresses, datacenter proxies use the same sub-networks of the datacenter, and that means the IPs can be traced to the same olocation targeting is limited – Datacenter servers are cloud-based, so it’s hard to access their services from particular geolocations. Residential Proxies What Are Residential Proxies and When You Should Use Them? As the name suggests, residential proxies are proxy servers assigned with residential IPs. Unlike datacenter proxies that are not in any way related to your internet service provider (ISP), residential IPs are assigned by your internet service provider. That means they are most likely operated by your internet provider, talk of companies such as AT&T, Time Warner, CenturyLink, and Comcast, just to mention a few. Paid Residential Proxies On the market, you will also find both free and paid residential proxies. As the name suggests, free proxies, otherwise known as public proxies, don’t need you to pay for the subscription or any other fees. On the other hand, paid proxies, also known as private proxies, require users to buy a subscription. While free proxies sound like a deal, they are not recommended simply because they don’t verify users. That means you don’t know how reliable or how clean these proxies are. How Residential Proxies Work Residential proxies work in the same way as datacenter servers in that they mask your real IP by routing your internet traffic and requests via an intermediary server with a different IP address. This way, the website resource you are on won’t trace back your activity to your real IP address. For the record, there are two types of residential proxies; static and rotating residential proxies. As the name suggests, static residential proxies remain connected to the same IP not unless you decide to disconnect or switch to another server. On the other hand, rotating residential proxies change the IP address automatically based on set criteria, for example, after some minutes. Applications of Residential Proxies One thing about residential servers is that the servers are based on real residential addresses, unlike cloud-based datacenter servers. Residential servers have been tailored to suit a range of applications, as discussed below. Accessing geo-blocked content. Residential proxies assign you a new IP in a different country. That means you can use it to connect to a server in a country where the content you want is not apping limited online deals. Some retailers offer deals to customers from certain countries. As you may be aware, they also have systems in place to detect any suspicious activity. But considering residential proxies are more legit, they are the best for such gathering. Because of their legitimacy, residential proxies are best for data gathering now that many websites shield their sites from web scraping tools. Unlike datacenter proxies, residential proxies are legit, so they guarantee that you will get the most accurate data without getting blocked or aggregation. Residential proxies are ideal for price aggregation because they allow price aggregation programs to access eCommerce websites without raising any suspicion. As you may be aware, eCommerce websites also try to block data gathering. Unlike datacenter proxies, residential proxies are more legit and won’t raise any filiate link testing. Residential proxies are the best ad verification proxies. Link testing is in response to the recent spate of affiliate marketing fraud. These proxies rely on city, ASN, and mobile carrier targeting to verify the compliance of all ads and affiliate protection. Residential datacenters allow brand managers to view their online reputation from different locations. What’s more? These proxies are ideal for excavating infringement cases and gathering evidence of any violations against their brand’s tomating data scraping. Residential proxies are ideal for automating data scraping. The advantage of residential proxies is spreading out requests, allowing the scraping program to process more data without being flagged Engine Optimization (SEO). To check how websites rank in different locations, SEO specialists rely on residential proxies as they allow them to connect to servers in different countries where they are analyzing the performance of the websites they are working on. It’s also possible to snoop on what your competition is doing. How to Create Residential Proxies Residential proxies are based on real devices in real locations, so you need to access the server to reroute traffic. They are harder to create because you need to contact the server’s owner; otherwise, you will be infringing on their rights. The best solution is buying a high-quality residential proxy from renowned providers. These providers take care of all the hassles and bustles. Advantages of Residential Proxies Are more legit – Residential proxies are based on real residential addresses, so using them raises no to get blacklisted – Unlike datacenter proxies, residential proxies are more legit, so it’s hard for them to be blacklisted or get rsatility – Considering they are more legit, residential proxies can be used for almost every liability – Again, bearing in mind they are legitimate, residential proxies guarantee reliability. Disadvantages of Datacenter Proxies Quite expensive – Unlike datacenter proxies, residential proxies are quite costly, so if you are on a budget, they are not idealExposes your location – Based on the fact that the residential proxy servers are in real locations, it is easy for anyone to pinpoint your location. Are Residential Proxies Better than Datacenter Proxies and Why? In this section, we have put the two proxies in a face to face comparison based on the important factors considered when choosing the best proxy. Find out how datacenter proxies compare to residential center proxiesResidential proxiesAvailability and PricingDatacenter proxies are cheaper because they are created and managed in large volumes by datacenters. Because of their availability, datacenter proxies are available at more affordable prices. The fact that they are less reliable also makes them sidential proxies are more expensive because they are attached to real residential addresses. Considering the legitimacy of residential proxies and, importantly, the fact that they are not readily available, residential proxies are more liabilityDatacenter proxies are reliable but don’t guarantee reliability as they can easily be identified and flagged down by secure sidential proxies guarantee reliability because they are based on real residential addresses, thus exuding more confidence amongst websites. SpeedsDatacenter proxies use the latest high-performance servers that guarantee fast sidential proxies don’t offer fast speeds, but the speeds are equally good when connected to the nearest licationsDatacenter proxies are versatile in that they can handle many applications that require fast sidential proxies are more versatile because they guarantee reliability and security. Which Proxies Should You Choose? Now, that’s the end of this datacenter proxies vs. residential proxies comparison review. Now, the big question is, which is the best proxy between the two? Well, this is a tricky question to answer because each proxy has advantages and disadvantages. It boils down to your needs and what you want to use the proxy for. If you are looking for high security, legitimacy, and reliability, go for residential proxies. However, if the tasks you want to undertake require high speeds, then datacenter proxies are the best choice. When it comes to affordability, residential proxies are expensive, so budget users should go for datacenter proxies as they are cheaper and readily available. We’d love to hear questions, comments and suggestions from you. Contact us or leave a comment you just starting out with GoLogin? Forget about account suspension or termination. Choose any wed platform and manage multiple accounts easily. Click here to start using all GoLogin features
Frequently Asked Questions about canada residential proxy
Are residential proxies legal?
Informed consent is the only legal way for a proxy provider to obtain residential and/or mobile IP addresses for the purposes of website testing, ad verification and anything else you use a proxy network for. … Opted-in users know exactly what their IP address is being used for, and how their device is being used.Feb 20, 2020
What is a residential proxy?
24-Oct-2019. Share: Residential proxies allow you to choose a specific location (country, city, or a mobile carrier) and surf the web as a real-user in that area. Proxies can be defined as intermediaries that protect users from general web traffic. They act as buffers while also concealing your IP address.Oct 24, 2019
Are residential proxies good?
Because of their legitimacy, residential proxies are best for data gathering now that many websites shield their sites from web scraping tools. Unlike datacenter proxies, residential proxies are legit, so they guarantee that you will get the most accurate data without getting blocked or misled.May 9, 2021