What Is a Distorting Proxy & How Does It Work?

Location-restricted content 

A distorting proxy is also a popular solution for people who want to access geo-blocked content. It creates an impression that you’re surfing the internet from a different location, thus making it easy to bypass geo-restrictions and get hold of the public information you need. Yet, it’s important to note that targets can still identify a distorting proxy and prohibit you from visiting a specific URL.

Caching

Similar to transparent proxies, distorting proxy servers can be used for caching purposes. By supporting fast caching, which is the process of storing copies of files in a cache, distorting proxies help users to access different websites with decreased load time and reduced usage of bandwidth.

Web scraping 

Individuals and businesses can also choose to implement distorting proxies in web scraping as they prove to be great at shielding one’s identity and, eventually, bypassing IP blocks and giving access to highly-localized information. 

Again, it’s essential to keep in mind that distorting proxies are not as reliable and anonymous as premium proxies (residential or datacenter). This means that remote websites still have an opportunity to identify and block them after some time. One way to go around this issue is by using high-quality rotating proxies in your scraping jobs. By assigning a new IP address for every connection, rotating proxies will make your activities untraceable and, therefore, allow for smooth and block-free data gathering.

Advantages and disadvantages of distorting proxies

In order to decide whether distorting proxies are the right solution for you, it’s integral to weigh all the benefits and drawbacks. The following are especially important to note:

Pros of using distorting proxies

• Improved anonymity – while using a distorting proxy, your IP address isn’t simply hidden but presented as a different one. This feature is exactly what provides you with the desired amount of privacy when surfing the web or performing scraping jobs.

• Easy access to geo-blocked content – with governments closely monitoring online activities and websites implementing location-based restrictions, a distorting proxy is definitely one of the best workarounds. It assigns you a false IP enabling access to content from a completely different location.

Cons of using distorting proxies

• Inconsistent – as mentioned earlier, distorting proxies are not trustworthy enough to be used in complex processes, such as web scraping. Remote websites can identify and block them, leaving you without a chance to extract the required public data.

• Security risks - on one hand, it may seem obvious that by masking IPs, distorting proxies successfully protect users from hackers or cybercriminals. But once you dig deeper, several important questions arise, such as where these IP addresses come from, whether they’re sourced ethically, and what purpose they served before you acquired them. While in the case of distorting proxies, it’s hard to give clear answers to these questions, the likelihood of your security being compromised becomes high.

The risks of using free distorting proxy lists

Just like with any other type of proxy server, it’s never a good idea to use free distorting proxy lists. Apart from contributing to slower loading time, increasing the risk of being monitored online, and often presenting users with tons of malicious ads, free proxies put you at risk of sensitive data leaks. This happens due to their tendency of not using HTTPS protocol that makes sure your connection is encrypted. As a result, hackers can steal such data as credit card and bank login information, usernames and passwords, your search history, and actions on the websites you visited.

To read more about why you shouldn’t use free proxies for your web scraping and other online activities, check out our extensive blog post on this topic.

Summing up

The general concept of distorting proxies, which is to provide a user with a false IP address in order to stay anonymous online, sounds like a great solution. However, these proxy servers also have some serious drawbacks that, eventually, can bring you and your company more harm than good. 

While these proxies can cope with easier tasks (e.g., protecting your identity during online research), we still recommend choosing premium proxies, such as residential or datacenter ones, whether you want to perform complex web scraping jobs or simply surf the internet safely.