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points by Bender 3 days ago | 0 comments

Most tools can be dual-use. Residential proxies are also used by malevolent actors to hack infrastructure or financial institutions and let some other poor soul get investigated for it. This is why we can't have nice things.

[–] kube-system 3 days ago

They're also used by the good guys who are going after those exact same bad guys.

[–] Bender 3 days ago

True, though unfortunately people can not be trusted to declare their intentions so the residential proxies will ultimately have to be sacrificed and given they are fairly easy to identify by behavior I could foresee the feds now having a reason to round 'em up faster. They already took out NetNut, IPIDEA, SocksEscort, Doppellganger and the "Kim Wolf" Offshoots.

[–] kube-system 3 days ago

Some of the more legit providers have KYC in place, and do literally require you to declare you intentions to open an account, and block certain traffic proactively unless you can prove a legitimate use.

[–] Bender 3 days ago

How do I identify which residential proxies have gone through KYC and which are wanting to pour hot sauce in my under garments?

[–] kube-system 3 days ago

The ones that do KYC list it pretty prominently on their website.

[–] Bender 3 days ago

They list the IP addresses of all the residential proxies? Is there a link to the netsets of all the IPv4 addresses they are using I can download once a day? (preferably over rsync but git over https is fine too)

[–] amritananda 3 days ago

I don't think even the most "ethical" providers are going to volunteer that information, since that defeats the entire purpose of having a residential proxy in the first place.

[–] kube-system 3 days ago

No...? That's a completely different question than what we were talking about above? The customers of a residential proxy who would be subject to KYC are the people using the addresses -- this has nothing to do with the exit addresses of those who have joined the network.