ronsor 10 hours ago

Residential rotating proxy providers charge very high rates for data, on the order of $1 - $10 per GB. (These providers often do run their proxies through the cellular network, actually.)

  • SteveNuts 10 hours ago

    Is this something where end users can get paid for doing nothing other than proxying some traffic through their ISP?

    • r1ch 9 hours ago

      The end user typically has their device compromised by using free apps where the developers were bribed $$$ to add the proxy "SDK". The botnet operator then rents out the bandwidth at exorbitant rates to anyone who will pay for it.

      Chrome extensions are also a huge source of this, they look for extensions with a large install base and then make an offer to buy it to turn all the users into proxies.

    • slt2021 9 hours ago

      end users install shady VPN apps/extensions to watch pirated content, and become part of residential proxy mesh/botnet

    • ronsor 9 hours ago

      That's probably where some of the proxies come from.

    • floam 8 hours ago

      Yes. Google “honeygain”

    • mrguyorama 9 hours ago

      Sure, if you want a whole bunch of legitimately malicious traffic to be attributed to your internet account.

    • ipython 9 hours ago

      If by “some” traffic you mean botnets, sneaker and ticket scalpers, scammers, content scrapers, credential stuffers … generally scummy stuff, sure.

      Based on this blog post I would not do any business with Skyvern, if they indeed do business with this underworld of bottom feeders.

mikeocool 10 hours ago

Sounds like they are running a web scarping business -- so maybe? Using a cellular connection would be one way to help not get immediately capcha-ed by every site using cloudflare.

  • blitzar 9 hours ago

    They should really setup their scraper and (exfil the data) via regular connections.