alt Hacker NewsResidential Proxies are the most emblematic technology of our era- a group of people looked at something that used to be considered a crime (botnets) and realized that if they just did it openly, no one would ever punish them.
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I think they also have to operate in countries that don't mind shady things like this.
This is a super dishonest characterization. Running software on a bunch of machines, even machines in other peoples' homes has never been a crime. Folding@home isn't a crime (obviously). It's controlling those machines without consent via malware that is criminal. And if it is open and consensual in exchange for something a person wants, it is unreasonable to compare it to botnets.
TIL:
> Many providers build their proxy pools by partnering with device owners who agree to share their bandwidth, while others use embedded SDKs in free apps or VPNs.
WTF. That's just botnets.
Source: https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber/alerts/2026/evading-re...
Thank god for residential proxies.
Highly unethical but the way the internet is going they're the last anti-hero of a somewhat open internet
And it's made necessary because another group of people thought that selling IP blocking services would be a good idea. One party sells walls, another party sells ladders.
Well, one party gives away free walls if you agree to fill your castle with surveillance cameras you don't control.