When sourced ethically, proxies can be a great tool for data collection, remote work, ad verification, and many other things. On the other hand, unethically sourced proxies can offer a sub-par service, breach your privacy, or even land you in legal trouble.
Follow along to learn all about the importance of ethical proxy sourcing and how you can distinguish a reputable proxy provider.
Residential proxy sourcing
Most discussions around the ethics or proxy sourcing tend to circle around residential proxies. Tricking regular internet users is typically much easier than doing the same to ISPs or datacenters, which results in a majority of unethically sourced proxies being residential.
But that doesn’t mean all residential proxies are sourced maliciously, far from it. Many ethical proxy providers, such as Ping Proxies, offer access to residential IPs that have been sourced ethically, with the informed consent of everyone involved.
Let’s take a closer look at the three main ways of sourcing proxies and where they stand in terms of ethics and legality.
Legal with informed consent
The only form of residential proxy sourcing with no legal or ethical issues is when the users knowingly agree to share their IP as a part of the proxy network. They’re usually rewarded with free access to a service or financial compensation.
In simpler terms, people agree to share their IP address with other users within the proxy network, with their device acting as a proxy server. They are thoroughly informed about their participation and how their IP might be used beforehand.
Many ethical proxy providers work with pay-for-bandwidth applications such as Honeygain, EarnApp, or Pawns.App to source their proxies. These programs allow people to share their internet connection and get paid for it. Proxy providers can also work with SDK developers which offer compensation to software developers for adding their proxy SDK to their applications. These developers integrate the proxy SDK and then offer a freemium application experience to their end-users - this can be a win-win as long as users are informed of the SDK and its function since end users will get to use premium applications, without ads or payment.
With these models, everyone involved ends up happy. Proxy buyers get a quality service, proxy providers get ethically sourced proxies, SDK programs get paid by proxy providers, and users acting as exit nodes get paid for sharing their connection or get access to software they would have had to pay for.
On top of sourcing proxies ethically, Ping Proxies has a strict AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) and monitors proxy use 24/7 to ensure that the proxies aren’t misused by the customers. This protects both the paying customers and the people providing their IPs and devices to be used as proxy servers.
Legal without informed consent
Some proxy providers include consent information within their Terms of Service (ToS) or other user agreements. This information may be positioned within the document rather than highlighted upfront, making it possible for users to agree without being fully aware of the proxy server aspect.
When users accept these agreements, their devices can become part of a proxy network. While they've technically provided consent through accepting the ToS, they may not receive any compensation for their participation.
This practice is legally compliant as long as users accept the agreement, however, studies show that many people tend to accept Terms of Service without reading them thoroughly, which can lead to unexpected outcomes and leaving you in an ethical gray area.
Illegal Botnet
Botnet proxy networks are by far the worst of the lot. They’re both unethical and illegal as they include users in their networks without any form of consent. Instead, botnet providers try to distribute malware to the devices of unsuspecting users, and when successful, use the infected devices as proxies in their network.
Such networks rarely live a long life. They try to benefit from illegally sourced proxies as quickly as possible before being inevitably caught by the police and shut down.
The RSocks case proves it perfectly. The biggest botnet proxy operation ever was closed down in 2022 thanks to a combined effort of law enforcement from the US, UK, Netherlands, and Germany. A similar fate awaits most botnet networks. If they manage to keep their operation running long enough, that is.
Static Residential ISP Proxy Sourcing
The question of ethics isn’t as widespread in the world of ISP (Internet Service Provider) proxies. That’s partly because ISPs are very unlikely to sign any shady agreements with hidden consent forms or be unknowingly included in malicious networks.
ISP proxies use IP addresses that are purchased from reputable ISPs but host them in datacenters instead of residential devices. As a result, you get the performance of a datacenter proxy but the apps and websites your visit recognize your IP address as a legitimate residential IP.
Therefore, the only ethics-related question is whether or not the proxy provider chooses to use reliable ISPs and datacenter for their service.
Here at Ping Proxies, we get our IPs from the likes of ATT, Comcast, DTAG and Spectrum. They’re then hosted in datacenters that are ISO SO/IEC 27001 certified. This allows us to provide quality proxies and ensure that nothing shady is happening behind the scenes.
Datacenter Proxy Sourcing
Much like with ISPs, datacenters are unlikely to be infiltrated by malicious actors. The main difference between the two is that the IP addresses from datacenter proxies can’t be linked to an ISP. Instead, traffic from such proxies is recognized as coming from a datacenter.
Ethical proxy providers choose data centers with the required information security and management certifications. It’s also better if the proxies are hosted on unique subnets instead of being a part of large subnets. This makes it much less likely for datacenter IPs to get flagged or blacklisted for any suspicious activity.
Why should you avoid unethically sourced proxies?
Not only are unethically sourced proxies, well, unethical and often illegal, but they also pose a whole heap of risks for users and businesses.
- Data breaches — unethical proxy providers are unlikely to take good care of your data. Not only are unethical proxies prone to data leaks and breaches, but the providers themselves may sell your data to third parties for profit. Needless to say, data breaches can be devastating for both businesses and individuals. Saving a small amount of money by choosing unethically sourced proxies isn’t worth the risk.
- Reliability issues — unethically sourced proxies tend to have a lot of performance issues. That’s because they rarely, if ever, filter their residential proxy network to include reliable and fast proxies. Instead, they include everyone they can trick into it. On top of that, unethical proxies are much more likely to get banned, restricted, or even completely shut down. This diminishes any work done by companies or individuals on said proxies up to that time.
- Reputation and legal risks — there is no benefit from being associated with shady operations. By using unethical proxies, businesses may hurt their reputation or even be included in lawsuits against providers.
- Financial loss — unethically sourced proxies may sometimes be cheaper at face value. But don’t forget to calculate that if the illegal operation shuts down, every penny you paid for your proxies is also lost, making such proxies much more expensive in the long run.
Conclusion
There’s much more to ethical proxy providers than ethics alone. They tend to follow the best industry practices, providing you with a reliable and secure experience. On the other hand, unethical providers can put your data and even your business at risk, all while providing a sub-par service at best.
So when you’re looking for a proxy server, take the extra minute to research the provider and make sure they’re sourcing proxies ethically.
