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Log inOur Residential Proxy Ethics
Every residential proxy seller claims to take an ethical approach. But time and time again, we see those claims don’t hold up under independent investigation. “Consent” gained through a giant terms of service nobody reads. A bullet point promising “social accountability” without specifics.
We’re not satisfied with the half-measures taken by other providers, and don’t think you should be either. We’re the ONLY provider that meets our standard of ethical acquisition of residential proxies, and hope our example will set the standard for the entire industry.
How We Acquire Proxies
Below are the two sources from which we acquire residential IPs:
Pay Customers Directly Through Cash Raven
Cash Raven is the downloadable app that allows us to pay users directly for use of their device’s IP address as a proxy. The app will eventually allow users to select the domains for which their device can and cannot be used, giving them FULL control over their IP.
Our software ensures that devices are ONLY used as proxies if all three of the following are true: their devices are connected to WiFi, their devices are not in use, and their devices are either plugged in or charged to at least 50%.
Anyone letting us use their address as a proxy has the option to opt-out at any time, no questions asked.
Resell From Partners Who Share Our Values
From time to time, we may resell proxies from other providers. These providers are thoroughly vetted to ensure that they meet our standards.
Currently, we are only sourcing from a vendor who pays their end users money in exchange for their bandwidth. No hidden TOS or otherwise – users are signing up because they WANT to earn money.
This is a necessary step while we grow our pool to profitability, and we hope that in the near future we will be able to move to an entirely in-house residential solution.
The Steps We Take
Vetting
Our commitment to ethics doesn’t stop once we have the IP addresses. Take a look at our residential proxy page. You’ll notice there’s no option to buy these IPs directly. Even though it might cost us sales, that decision is intentional. We refuse to open the doors to nefarious actors who might try to use our system.
All residential customers must:
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Demo their product to us to prove that their business case is legitimate and meets our ethical standards.
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Go through a rigorous, proprietary “Know Your Customer” vetting process where they provide additional information about who they are and what they do.
Usage Monitoring
Before anyone uses our residential proxies, we make sure we’re dealing with a legitimate enterprise user who has been thoroughly vetted and approved by our sales and support teams.
The user MUST be using proxies for one of our verified use cases.
Our proprietary monitoring system, trained on hundreds of thousands of proxies over our years in operation, keeps an eye on usage and immediately shuts down any use case that does not meet our standards of ethics and legality.
How we monitor usage:
- Automated monitoring
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Our system can detect & immediately shut down risky behavior. For example, a user getting a large number of bans when they use proxies could indicate they’re trying to do a DDoS attack or another unethical behavior.
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Manual spot checks
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Our 24/7 technical team keeps an eye on users (especially users that we deem to be potentially “risky”) to confirm they’re using proxies in a manner consistent with our values.
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Preventative measures
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We take preventative measures to ensure ethical usage. For example, locking a residential customer’s account only to the domains they say they are going to use on our system so there’s no risk of them using it for other sites.
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Total Privacy Compliance
We believe it would be beyond hypocritical for a company that sells proxies – one of the hallmarks of good online privacy and cybersecurity – to collect user data. Accordingly, we collect no personal information from users who consent to using their device as a proxy – all we use is the IP address.
We remain fully committed to complying with all relevant legal statutes relating to data protection, including (but not limited to) the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. However, we see this as a stepping stone to best practices regarding the privacy rights of users – not an end in and of itself.